Fed, FDIC to hold public meetings on BB&T-SunTrust deal

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will hold two public meetings on BB&T's proposed acquisition of SunTrust Banks.

The meetings will consider the merger's impact on the U.S. banking system, along with each bank's performance under the Community Reinvestment Act.

The first meeting will be held April 25 at the Fed's Charlotte branch. The second meeting will be held at May 3 at the Fed's Atlanta branch.

“The purpose of the meetings is to collect information relating to the convenience and needs of the communities to be served,” the regulators said in a Thursday press release, adding that the meetings will also examine the companies' financial and managerial resources, future prospects and market competition.

The Fed also extended the public comment period on the companies’ application to May 3.

The new BB&T would have $442 billion in assets and would be a state nonmember bank, chartered in North Carolina, meaning that the FDIC and the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks would share supervisory authority. The Fed would oversee the holding company.

BB&T agreed in February to buy SunTrust for $28 billion in what will be the biggest bank merger in more than a decade.

The deal has come under fire from several Democratic legislators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters of California.

Waters told American Banker that the merger “raises many questions and deserves serious scrutiny from banking regulators, Congress and the public to determine its impact and whether it would create a public benefit for consumers.”