The Federal Reserve Board has raised the bar for bank mergers that would require an in-depth Fed review to $100 billion.
The Fed previously gave more rigorous vetting to deals that would create banks with assets of at least $25 billion, starting with its review of Capital One’s purchase of ING assets in 2012.
“Since establishing this presumption, the board’s experience has shown that proposals involving an acquisition of less than $10 billion in assets, or that result in a firm with less than $100 billion in total assets, are generally not likely to create institutions that pose systemic risks,” the Fed said in its approval of People’s United Financial’s deal to buy Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y.
“Transactions below either of these asset thresholds have typically not involved, or resulted in, firms with activities, structures, and operations that are complex or opaque,” the approval added. “Such transactions have also not materially increased the interconnectedness or complexity of the financial system.”
People’s United is based in Bridgeport, Conn. Its acquisition of Suffolk would create a bank with assets of more than $40 billion.
