BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
Dime Community Bank has closed its $489 million merger with BNB Bank, boosting the local banking giant into a force with 65 combined locations from Montauk to Manhattan now branded as Dime locations, the company announced Monday.
Known as a merger of equals, or MOE for short, as the two banks are about the same size, the newly merged bank has combined assets worth $12.5 billion and $9 billion in total deposits.
The BNB Bank locations in New York City, now rebranded as Dime branches, include two in Queens (35-02 Broadway, Astoria; and 43-01 Bell Blvd., Bayside); and one in Midtown Manhattan, at 34 East 51st St.
But the newly merged bank’s leaders maintain that personal relationships with customers are central to its operations.
“Our commitment is really to make this a very smooth transition for our customers,” said Stuart Lubow, president and chief operating officer of Dime. “The new company just provides additional capacity to do so much more business with our existing customers and all that are in our marketplace who have not experienced what true community banks are about. Although we’re doubling our size, we’re still community bankers and we’re still dealing with relationships — we can just do it even better now.”
Customers will not experience any immediate changes to their accounts, loan payment terms, access to account information, use of debit cards, or access to ATMs. The company expects to combine its banking technology platforms by early in the second quarter of 2021 without any disruption to customers.
“The only thing that was a little bit different is that at one time we thought we’d keep the name BNB at some of the East End branches, and then we made the decision that we’re one company, let’s have one identity,” said Kevin O’Connor, who was chief executive officer of BNB and is now CEO of the merged banks. “It’s really not about the name on the door, it’s the people inside.”
Both banks have been serving the community for more than a century. Dime was founded 156 years ago, while BNB was founded in 1910.
