WesBanco follows Marcellus’ pull to Western Pennsylvania
Michael Mooney, WesBanco’s marketing president for Western Pennsylvania, stands in the lobby of the new WesBanco branch in Southpointe II moments before the grand opening Tuesday.
Exterior of the new WesBanco located in Southpointe II
WesBanco is banking on Marcellus Shale.
The Reconstruction Era financial institution widened its footprint across the formation, from Ohio and West Virginia into Southwestern Pennsylvania. It recently ramped up its presence in this end of the state, acquiring ESB Bank Oct. 30 and opening a branch in Southpointe II four days later.
Mike Mooney, not surprisingly, said this was the intent. If people can make money in the oil and natural gas industry, so can financial institutions.
“Shale definitely has had an impact,” said Mooney, the company’s market president for Western Pennsylvania.
“The thing that is unique to WesBanco is we have 71 percent of our offices in the Marcellus Shale region, and after the merger, that number goes to about 90 percent.
“There are so many businesses related to Marcellus Shale. We’ve beefed up our lending staff as well as our wealth management staff to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Opportunity is as abundant as Marcellus natural gas for Wheeling, W.Va.-based WesBanco, founded in 1870 and still flowering 144 years later. It had 120 branches in three states, 16 in Southwestern Pennsylvania, before acquiring ESB Financial Corp. in a $324 million deal that will likely close in the spring.
This happened a little less than two years after WesBanco merged with Fidelity Bancorp.
Ellwood City-based ESB has 23 branches in four counties, all in Pennsylvania: Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence. The merger will enable WesBanco to move into Butler and Lawrence and “fill in gaps in Allegheny and Beaver,” where it already is, Mooney said.
Simple math dictates there will be 39 Pennsylvania offices following closure of the deal, but Mooney said there may be consolidations in areas where WesBanco and ESB both currently serve.
You could call this region an asset district.
“After the merger,” Mooney said, “Western Pennsylvania will account for $2.5 billion of the bank’s $8.5 billion in assets.
Washington County, of course, is part of the equation – has been since 2002. WesBanco has three branches there: Main Street in Washington, Trinity Point shopping center in South Strabane Township, and now on Horizon Vue Drive in Southpointe. The ceremonial grand opening and ribbon cutting were Tuesday evening.
The two-story center in Town Center has 4,000 square feet of operating space, two ATMS – one inside, one drive-through – and services ranging from business and retail lending, deposit and wealth management.
Todd F. Clossin is president and chief executive officer. ESB executives Charlotte Zuschlag, president and CEO, and Robert Young, chief financial officer, will join the WesBanco board of directors following completion of the transaction.
Mooney said corporate-wise, the expansion eastward to Washington County launched something of a domino effect.
“Washington County was a nice step connecting with Wheeling. Then it was Washington County up to the South Hills, to Pittsburgh, then the North Hills” . . . and, soon, up to the New Castle area.
He added that, for now, there are no immediate expansion plans in Washington County, or into Greene or Fayette counties. Mooney said even though Washington has but three branches “we have gone to great lengths to beef up our staffing in the county, with the addition of wealth management personnel and mortgage lenders.
“It makes sense to increase staff because business related to the Marcellus Shale industry.”