US Bank M&A Will Face More Hurdles Under OCC Proposal
James Stevens, a partner with Troutman Pepper and co-leader of the firm's Financial Services Industry Group, was quoted in the S&P Global Market Intelligence article, " US Bank M&A Will Face More Hurdles Under OCC Proposal."
"That's another thing that I think that people will wonder about: Is this something that is already in practice?" James Stevens, partner and co-leader of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP's Financial Services Industry Group, said in an interview. "We know that transactions that are of that size ... take longer from a regulatory standpoint. Maybe this is why."
The industry has been predicting a wave of regional bank M&A to deal with impending regulatory rule changes for banks with more than $100 billion in assets, but now bank executives might "pause and rethink and maybe not even go forward," Stevens said.
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On the flip side, Stevens believes banks' hunger for scale will overcome the confusion.
"[The proposal's] ultimate impact on M&A will be marginal because, at the end of the day ... the drivers of M&A — people trying to get scale and efficiency and get in new markets — it's just too important," Stevens said.