Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee this week urged the Federal Reserve to continue to make progress in reducing the time to process bank merger and acquisition applications.
In a letter to Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the lawmakers said they were pleased the central bank has taken steps to shorten M&A approval timeframes.
“Acquiring banks often bring stronger management to acquired banking organizations, and this management can work to provide more capital to households and businesses in the target bank’s geographic footprint,” they said.
Still, committee members had recommendations for how the Fed could continue to speed up the application process. They include a review of long-pending applications focused on identifying and removing obstacles to final action.
“[T]he great majority of banking mergers that raise competitive or other concerns are identified before the formal submission of a written application to federal banking agencies,” the lawmakers said. “Stated another way, most proposals formally presented to regulators are the survivors of a substantial vetting process between motivated private parties while problematic proposals are abandoned before such formal presentation.”
