4 Morris County Bank Branches Closing As NJ Companies Merge Locations

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — Lakeland Bank will be closing several branches in Morris County this summer, as it carries out a high-profile merger with Provident Bank.

As the two New Jersey-based companies begin combining their branch network, there were 22 locations "where overlap exists due to their close proximity to another branch," according to Provident Bank's website.

"A careful and thorough review of our combined branch network was undertaken, and we have decided to close either a Provident branch or a Lakeland branch in cases where a single location can serve all of our customers," the company said.

Provident announced that the merger was completed last month, with the combined company to operate as “Provident Financial Services, Inc.” and the combined bank to operate under the “Provident Bank” name.

Consolidations will begin on Thursday, Aug. 29. Here are the locations in Morris County that will be affected:

• Lakeland Bank, 55 Broadway, Denville NJ, 07834
• Lakeland Bank, 265 Main St., Madison NJ, 07940
• Lakeland Bank, 106 E Main St., Mendham, 07945
• Lakeland Bank, 151 South St., Morristown, 07960

The merger agreement between Provident Financial Services, Inc. and Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. allows both companies to grow and to expand the services they provide to customers, Lakeland added in an earlier statement.

"The merger combines two complementary banking platforms to create New Jersey’s preeminent super-community bank," Lakeland said.

The combined service area will contain 140 branches across New Jersey and parts of New York and Pennsylvania by Sept. 3.

Affected customers "have been notified well in advance" and can also visit any of Provident’s other branch locations or use its online and mobile banking systems once their location has closed, Provident said.

On a pro forma basis, the combined company will have approximately $24.5 billion of assets, $18.8 billion of loans, deposits of $18.6 billion, and total stockholders’ equity of $2.3 billion.

Patch's Eric Kiefer contributed to this report.