James Stevens, co-leader of Troutman Pepper’s Financial Services Industry Group, was quoted in the March 28, 2024 S&P Global Market Intelligence article, “FDIC’s Bank Merger Review Overhaul to Have ‘Chilling’ Effect on Deal Activity.”

“It will both slow transaction approval down and potentially reduce the number of transactions that even get proposed,” said James Stevens, partner and co-leader of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP’s Financial Services Industry Group. The FDIC’s new document “doesn’t give any clarity on anything,” Stevens said in an interview.

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The proposal could have a further-reaching impact and “trickle all the way down” to deals resulting in institutions with just $10 billion in assets, according to Stevens.

“It adds more uncertainty, not less, and it demonstrates a negative attitude towards those transactions that will, on the margins, cause fewer of them to be proposed,” Stevens said.