Several high-profile acquisitions were scuttled last year for a variety of reasons.
Overall, 167 bank deals were announced in 2022, according to Dec. 28 data compiled by Mercer Capital. Many of the transactions were unable to cross the finish line after the parties were unable to secure regulatory approval.
Here are some of the notable transactions that were officially nixed in 2022.
- Blue Ridge Bankshares in Charlottesville, Va., and FVCBankcorp in Fairfax, Va., gave up on merging in January after lengthy delays getting regulatory approval. Blue Ridge disclosed just months after announcing the deal in 2021 that it faced delays after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency raised an issue. The OCC eventually hit Blue Ridge with a written agreement tied to its fintech dealings.
- First Internet Bancorp in Fishers, Ind., and First Century Bancorp in Roswell, Ga., agreed to end their planned $80 million transaction when they were unable to close by the April 30 termination date. The banks couldn’t reach an agreement on an extension – the issue was renegotiating the purchase price.
- VyStar Credit Union in Jacksonville, Fla., and Heritage Southeast Bancorp. agreed in June to terminate VyStar’s planned purchase of Heritage Southeast Bank after failing to secure regulatory approval. Heritage Southeast eventually agreed to sell to First Bancshares in Hattiesburg, Miss.
- Patriot National Bancorp in Stamford, Conn., had planned to buy neobank American Challenger Development in a complicated series of transactions. Patriot National planned to raise $875 million to fund the deal. The transaction was called off in July.
- StoneCastle Partners in September terminated an agreement to sell its digital deposit-gathering business to Veritex Holdings in Dallas. Veritex, which was in the process of pursuing approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said it is considering all options tied to the termination, including possible willful and material breaches by StoneCastle.
- OceanFirst Financial in Red Bank, N.J., and Partners Bancorp in Salisbury, Md., terminated their planned merger in early November after being unable to secure all the necessary regulatory approvals.
- State Street in Boston and Brown Brothers Harriman agreed in November to terminate a deal where State Street would have acquired BBH’s investor services business for $3.5 billion. BBH said the deal was terminated because State Street was unable to secure regulatory approval.
- BM Technologies, a fintech, had hoped to buy First Sound Bank in Seattle for $23 million in cash, but the parties abandoned their plans in December after being unable to get regulatory approval. The fintech had withdrawn its merger application but had expressed a desire to resubmit in 2023.