SCNB merger with People’s United will result in 76 layoffs in Riverhead in January

The proposed merger of Suffolk County National Bank with People’s United Bank will result in the layoff of 76 employees at Suffolk’s administrative offices in Riverhead, according to a notice published by the N.Y. State Department of Labor this week.

The layoffs will come during the two-week period beginning on Jan. 26, 2017. Sixty-five of the employees work at the bank’s Second Street headquarters and 11 work at its adjacent offices on Griffing Avenue. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state was first reported by Newsday on Tuesday.

The merger between Suffolk County National Bank, headquartered in Riverhead, and the Bridgeport, Connecticut-based bank was recently approved by both companies’ shareholders and awaits approval by federal regulators.

People’s United has been a leader in establishing non-traditional banking locations, opening numerous branches in Stop and Shop Supermarkets, including the one in Riverhead.

The fate of Suffolk County National Bank’s traditional bank branches remains unknown. Sixty-four percent of Suffolk’s branches — including two in Riverhead — are within two miles of a People’s United branch, People’s United CEO Jack Barnes said in a June conference call announcing the proposed merger to shareholders.

People’s United Financial, Inc. is a diversified financial services company with over $39 billion in assets. People’s United Bank, founded in 1842, is a regional bank in the Northeast offering commercial and retail banking and wealth management services through a network of nearly 400 retail locations in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

SCNB, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Riverhead, is a community bank with 28 branches on Long Island. It has total assets of $2.3 billion.

The acquisition is a 100-percent stock transaction valued at approximately $402 million, according to NASDAQ.