Amalgamated Financial in New York has called off its $98.1 million acquisition of Amalgamated Investments Co., the parent of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, citing an inability to secure regulatory approval.
The seller, however, said the door to obtaining approval “is still open” and expressed hope that the merger could move forward.
Neither bank provided specifics on the regulatory challenges, with the seller saying only that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had raised “issues” about the deal. The banks announced the merger in September and had expected
Several deals have faced delays in recent months amid heightened regulatory scrutiny and staffing shortages at the regulatory agencies. But the bulk of the delays have involved much larger banks and more complex transactions.
While their names and missions are similar, the two companies are not affiliated. Both companies
The $7 billion-asset Amalgamated Financial in New York said in a brief statement late Friday that it could not obtain regulatory approval for the all-cash transaction and, as such, “is no longer proceeding with the transaction.”
Amalgamated in Chicago issued its own statement later Friday.
“The terms of our agreement with Amalgamated Financial Corp. are clear on what triggers termination of this sale,” the bank said. “They have not met that threshold as the door on addressing issues raised by the FDIC to obtain regulatory approval is still open."
It continued: “Amalgamated Financial has an obligation to address those issues, which we believe are not financial in nature, and move forward with refiling their application with the FDIC. Our goal is to help them overcome the issues that have been raised and we are confident that the sale can get back on track.”
When the deal was announced, the two companies said it would create a bank with nearly $8 billion of assets, $6.8 billion of deposits, $3.7 billion of loans and $19 billion of trust assets under management.
