Small Banks May Face Pressure to Sell Given Election Results

Smaller banks, fearing the regulatory burden from the legislation will crush them and no longer holding the hope that Romney could lighten the load, "are now reassessing their profit prospects – and independence," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.

"Some boards that were holding out and hoping things would go back to the way it was a few years ago now realize that’s probably not realistic,” says Dan Bass of FBR Capital Markets.

"We're going to get more regulations and a tightening down on consumer rules," said Rusty Cloutier, of MidSouth Bancorp. He predicts we’ll see 1,000 small banks lost to consolidation over next three to five years

For the full piece see "Election Results May Force Some Banks to Sell" (may require subscription).