New York Community, Astoria Terminate $2B Merger

New York Community Bancorp in Westbury and Astoria Financial in Lake Success, N.Y., have terminated their merger.

The companies said in a press release Tuesday that their boards had "mutually agreed" to not extend the deal's termination date set for Jan. 1. The short release gave no other information.

New York Community agreed in October 2015 to pay $2 billion for the $14.8 billion-asset Astoria. The deal was supposed to help the $49.5 billion-asset New York Community jump over the $50 billion asset mark — a threshold that triggers additional regulatory scrutiny — but it did little to help diversify its balance sheet away from a reliance on commercial real estate loans. Regulators have warned about potential risks in CRE and have started paying more attention to banks that are highly concentrated in this area.

The companies announced last month that New York Community would not receive regulatory approval in time to close by the end of this year, as originally planned. The parties "remain committed to the transaction," New York Community said at that time, but it noted that any extension would need to be approved by both boards.

Shareholders of both companies approved the transaction in April.