New Bank-Merger Regulations Could be Undone if Biden Loses in November

Randy Benjenk’s commentary was included a MarketWatch article exploring the political factors around the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) newly-proposed review process for bank mergers. While the rules were touted as a means of making merger reviews faster, Randy shared his expertise on areas of concern where the new rules could make reviews less clear.

“Acquirers want to know what they’re buying and what assets they might need to divest to pass antitrust muster, and the FDIC is making that much harder to know up front,” Randy observed. He added that the FDIC is also proposing a “very low bar” for holding public hearings on mergers.

“Public hearings can be a distraction for management teams that are focusing on integration planning and generally do not add useful information that regulators can’t get through the written comment process,” Randy said.