-
TFS Financial announced dividend plans recently that have many wondering whether it is headed toward a second-step conversion in the near future. The speculation makes sense, but the Cleveland company would face some obstacles.
July 3 -
Mutual conversions soared this year as mutual thrift executives sought to raise capital at the behest of investment bankers and others. With many of the biggest mutuals having converted this year, there may be a drop-off in conversions in 2015.
December 24 -
A Massachusetts mutual's failure to gain depositor approval for a conversion suggests a way for small towns to push back against the loss of their local banks, according to lawyer Kevin Handly.
August 29
Mutual banks planning to merge and convert to stock ownership have a mystery to unravel: What did the regulators dislike about a recently scuttled deal in Pennsylvania?
Huntingdon Valley Bank and Victory Bank
The FDIC, however, indicated that it would not accept the merger application due to "policy concerns regarding mutual conversion/mergers that" surfaced during a review of the paperwork. The banks have been left scratching their heads over what specific policy concerns doomed the application.
"We were told repeatedly, up and down the ladder inside the FDIC, that there was no objection to the merger on a business or safety-and-soundness matter, and that if we were both stock banks nobody would raise an eyebrow about it," said Joseph Major, Victory's chairman.
"At the end, we were just told that they were not going to accept the merger on policy grounds, and that's as much as we were told," Major said, adding that the rejection wasn't due to a problem at either bank.
The FDIC did not immediately respond to questions about the decision.
Uncertainty about the FDIC's objection could chill the market for mergers between mutual and stock banks. Such deals, in which a former mutual uses money raised in an offering to fund an acquisition, are unusual, though a handful usually take place each year.
The FDIC's rejection is another headwind for mutual conversions, which have been facing
Other industry observers are scared that conversions threaten the shrinking niche industry.
Media reports have added fuel to the fire. The
Regulators have also started to scrutinize conversions more closely, banking lawyers said. In December, Kearny Financial in New Jersey
"You can certainly sense that regulators are getting a little bit more nervous about the process," said Stanley Ragalevsky, a lawyer at K&L Gates. "My sense is that people are starting to ask more questions."
The Huntingdon Valley-Victory merger was conceived as a way for similarly sized banks that operate in the same county to gain scale and cut costs. The banks also have complementary business models: Huntingdon focuses on mortgages, Victory on business loans.
The match may look logical on paper, but lawyers said such deals can easily hit snags. The most common reasons for regulators to object to merger conversions are an overly high sale price, excessive stock awards or compensation and a deal structure in which it looks like the stock-owned company is taking control of the converting bank.
"There is sometimes concern in these cases that there's too much control going to the seller," said Kip Weissman, a lawyer at of Luse, Gorman, Pomerenk & Schick.
Without details from the FDIC, it's impossible to tell which of these factors, if any, contributed to the rejection. Mark McCollom of Griffin Financial Group, who advised Huntingdon Valley, said his client addressed all of these potential pitfalls early on in its discussions with the regulator.
"We had discussed the structure of the transaction early and often with the FDIC," McCollom said.
These talks convinced the banks to go through with the deal, a decision that ultimately proved costly and time consuming. The banks first presented the deal to the FDIC in the summer of 2013, and filed the merger documents last May.
McCollom said the FDIC seemed willing to approve the deal during preliminary talks. The sale price, compensation and deal structure were extensively discussed before the merger was filed, McCollom said. He said neither he nor Huntingdon Valley was given any specifics on why the deal was squashed.
Huntingdon Valley did not respond to a request for comment.
"While we understand that early discussions with the regulator do not take the place of a formal regulatory process, neither company would have expended the money in legal fees and accounting expenses had they not felt that those discussions leaned in the direction of the merger being acceptable to the regulators," McCollom said.
Huntingdon Valley and Victory will amicably go their separate ways.
Major said his bank plans to raise common stock in the near future so it will have more options to gain scale. Major said he has nothing but respect for Huntingdon Valley's management team, despite the long and ultimately disappointing merger process.
"I've really become close to them," he said. "I wish them nothing but the best, and I'm disappointed we're not going to work with them."
