While Buffalo was not seen as being white collar like Rochester, banking has always played an important role. Marine Midland, M&T Bank and First Niagara were all HQ'd here.
Marine Midland (which built Buffalo's tallest building in 1972) was bought out by HSBC and they eventually moved HQ to Manhattan, and now they are divesting themselves of retail banking entirely. Operations in Buffalo are minimal compared to the thousands of jobs (5,000+) that were once in the area.
First Niagara was bought out by Key Bank (of Cleveland) but still employs thousands in the area.
M&T Bank is still headquartered in Buffalo (currently employs over 7,000 locally) and through acquisitions has grown to be currently the 23rd largest bank in the country with $150 Billion in assets.
M&T has developed a new $58M banking technology hub, expected to add 1,000+ jobs and taking up 330k SF of space in the former Marine Midland/HSBC tower, now called Seneca One tower, which is undergoing a $120M transformation into mixed use by DC based developer Douglas Jemal.
Checkout the progress of the transformation of Buffalo's tallest skyscraper:
From the paint job:
https://www.buffalorising.com/2020/0...one-paint-job/
M&T banking technology hub:
https://www.buffalorising.com/2021/0...ub-seneca-one/
Latest news:
https://www.buffalorising.com/2021/0...at-seneca-one/