Prosperity completes 2nd of 3 Texas M&A deals

Prosperity completes second of three Texas M&A deals

In this week's banking news roundup: Houston's Prosperity Bancshares completes the second of three acquisitions it's announced since July; Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation appoints a new chief information security officer for its American operations; Huntington Bancshares, Third Coast Bancshares and Heritage Financial finalize acquisitions; and more.

Prosperity finalizes another M&A deal in Texas

Prosperity Bancshares in Houston completed the second of three acquisitions it's announced since July.

The regional bank finalized the $269 million, all-stock purchase of Southwest Bancshares on Feb. 1, it said in a press release. Southwest, which had $2.5 billion of assets, is the San Antonio-based parent company of Texas Partners Bank.

The agreement between Prosperity and Southwest was announced in October, two months after the death of Southwest's founder and CEO, J. Bruce Bugg, Jr.

Prosperity is in the midst of a growth spurt. The $38 billion-asset bank closed its $322 million acquisition of the $2.5 billion-asset American Bank on Jan. 1. Last month, it agreed to pay $2 billion for Stellar Bancorp, also based in Houston.

That deal, which is expected to close during the second quarter, would create the second-biggest Texas-headquartered bank, with $54 billion of assets, the bank said. —Allissa Kline

Japan’s SMBC hires new chief information security officer

The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, one of Japan's largest banks, has appointed a new chief information security officer for its American operations.

Donna Hart, a veteran of Ally Financial and Wells Fargo, will now serve as CISO of SMBC Americas. Hart had held the same position at Ally for five years, and spent more than 23 years at Wells Fargo in various cybersecurity roles.

"Donna's proven leadership in cybersecurity and risk management make her an outstanding addition to SMBC," Greg Keeley, chief operating officer of SMBC Americas, said in a statement. "Her ability to build resilient security programs and lead in complex risk environments will contribute to SMBC Americas' continued growth."

SMBC is the commercial banking subsidiary of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, a Japanese financial giant with $1.8 trillion of assets. SMBC Americas has operations in the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. —Nathan Place

Adobe Stock

Three more bank deals cross the finish line

Huntington Bancshares, Third Coast Bancshares and Heritage Financial are among the banks that completed acquisitions in the past week.

Ohio-based Huntington finalized its $7.4 billion purchase of Cadence Bank on Feb. 1, Huntington said in a press release. In Texas, Third Coast's $123 million acquisition of Keystone Bancshares closed the same day. Heritage in Washington wrapped up its $176 billion purchase of Olympic Bancorp and its banking arm, Kitsap Bank, on Jan. 31.

Huntington, which has now completed two M&A deals since October, has $279 billion of assets. Houston-based Third Coast now has about $6 billion of assets and three additional branches, including two in Austin. And Heritage's post-acquisition asset size is about roughly $8.8 billion.

The timeline for receiving regulatory approval for bank M&A deals has shortened during the second Trump administration. Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati closed its $10.9 billion acquisition of Dallas-based Comerica earlier this week, less than four months after the transaction was announced. —Allissa Kline

Jonathan Weiss/jetcityimage

Huntington Bank names Senthil Kumar chief risk officer

Huntington National Bank appointed Senthil Kumar its new chief risk officer, the Columbus, Ohio-based bank announced in a press release. He will succeed Helga Houston, who will take on a new role as senior executive advisor. Kumar and Houston will transition to their new positions on March 1, with Kumar reporting to Chief Executive Officer Steve Steinour.

Kumar joins the $279 billion-asset Huntington with 25 years of experience in senior risk leadership. Most recently, he was chief risk officer at BNY, where he oversaw the firm's credit risk, operational risk, market risk and compliance functions. He has held senior risk leadership roles at Citi, including chief risk officer for the institutional clients group and as head of risk for financial institutions and the public sector. Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions at Samba Financial Group, first as head of market risk management and then as business head of alternative investments. —Traci Parks

Al Drago/Bloomberg

Fed unveils stress test criteria as agency overhauls annual exam

The Federal Reserve finalized hypothetical scenarios for its stress test, which gauges how Wall Street banks would fare under a potential recession.

The central bank, which is in the process of overhauling the annual exams, said the final scenarios are substantially similar to the criteria proposed in October.

The Fed's board of governors voted to maintain the current stress capital buffer requirements until 2027.

"Waiting to calculate new stress capital buffer requirements until we receive public feedback will give us the opportunity to correct any deficiencies in our supervisory models based on that feedback," Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said in a statement.

Stress tests were imposed after the 2008 financial crisis to strengthen banks against future economic shocks. —Megan Howard, Bloomberg News