Wilmington Trust Co, now part of M&T Bank Corp, will pay $18.5 million to settle charges that it underreported the amount of construction loans that were not being repaid after the financial crisis, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.The SEC said that Wilmington Trust in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 failed to disclose more than $330 million of loans that were at least 90 days past due, and materially misreported such loans in the first half of 2010. It said Wilmington Trust did not set aside enough money for loan losses.Mounting losses from construction loans and commercial mortgages were a major factor in Wilmington Trust's agreement in November 2010 to sell itself to M&T at a 46 percent discount to its market value at that time. The merger closed in May 2011."Improper application of accounting principles by Wilmington Trust had the effect of misleading investors about a key credit quality metric during a time of significant upheaval and financial distress for the bank," Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC enforcement division, said in a statement.
M&T Bank Corporation (M&T) is a bank holding company. Shares of MTB traded higher by 0.53% or $0.66/share to $125.69. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $109.16 and as high as $125.90. On average, 568152 shares of MTB exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 475153.
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