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Banker & Tradesman file photos
Greater Boston’s banking landscape will experience a dramatic shift this Friday as two of the region’s largest bank mergers in recent years will take place that day.
The parent companies of Rockland Trust Co. and East Boston Savings Bank said in a statement Friday afternoon that they had received regulatory approval to complete their merger. They expect to close the deal on Friday, Nov. 12, pending customary closing conditions.
The banks had announced in April that Rockland Trust’s parent company, Independent Bank Corp., would acquire Meridian Bancorp Inc., East Boston Savings Bank parent, in an all-stock deal valued at $1.15 billion. The transaction had already been approved by the banks’ shareholders and by federal regulators, and only approval from the Massachusetts Division of Banks was still needed.
The combined bank will have total assets of about $20 billion, second among Massachusetts-based banks behind Boston-based Eastern Bank, which will have about $24 billion in assets after it acquires Medford-based Century Bank, a deal that will also close on Friday.
Eastern Bank and Century Bank had received all regulatory approvals in September after announcing merger plans in April, a few weeks before Rockland Trust and East Boston Savings finalized their merger agreement. Eastern is acquiring Century in an all-cash deal valued at $642 million,
The region has already seen another transaction involving one of its other large stock banks, as Boston Private was acquired in July by the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank and is now known as Boston Private – An SVB Company.
Another deal will bring a new name to Massachusetts banking as Connecticut-based People’s United Bank, which has branches across Massachusetts, will be acquired by Buffalo-based M&T Bank, which does not have retail branches in Massachusetts. That deal, which was announced in February, has been approved by Connecticut and New York regulators and awaits federal approval.
Two other New England banks with a significant Massachusetts presence are also involved with mergers, though those deals will not directly affect Massachusetts’ banking landscape. Providence-based Citizens Financial is acquiring New Jersey-based Investors Bank, while Connecticut-based Webster Bank plans to combine with New York-based Sterling National Bank in a merger-of-equals transaction.
