Days after he was appointed acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), Travis Hill oversaw the agency’s first approval of a merger agreement under his watch. The federal banking regulator approved WesBanco Bank, Inc.’s Bank Merger Act (BMA) application to acquire and merge with Premier Bank to create a regional financial services institution with approximately $27 billion in total assets.
The resulting bank will operate in West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and will operate under the WesBanco Bank brand. The regulatory approval came about a month after 85 percent of shareholders of both WesBanco and Premier Bank voted in favor of the merger in December.
“Shareholder approval is a key milestone that reflects strong confidence in the opportunities this merger creates for our communities, customers, employees and shareholders,” said Jeff Jackson, president and CEO of WesBanco.
Improving the bank merger approval process is one of the priorities Hill highlighted in his statement following his appointment as the agency’s acting leader following the resignation of former FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg.
“[T]he FDIC faces a broad range of issues, and as always will fulfill our mandate to promote a safe, sound, and resilient banking system,” Hill said in a statement following his appointment by President Donald Trump.
Hill also said the FDIC should replace the agency’s 2024 Statement of Policy “to ensure that merger transactions that satisfy the Bank Merger Act are approved in a timely way.”
When reviewing applications pursuant to the requirements of the BMA, the FDIC considers the competitive effects of the transaction, the financial and managerial resources and future prospects of the existing and proposed institutions, the convenience and needs of the communities to be served, the risk to the stability of the U.S. banking or financial system, and the anti-money laundering records of the institutions involved, the FDIC explained in a press release.
With respect to the application filed by WesBanco and Premier, the FDIC found those factors were all satisfied, as well as additional requirements applicable to the transaction as an interstate merger under Section 44 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.