The Fed Just Gave These 3 Stocks a Boost
At the end of the day on Friday, Dec. 17, the Federal Reserve approved three bank mergers that had been in its backlog. The approvals came as a bit of a surprise -- not because I didn't think they would get approved, but because I thought they might be pushed off until next year due to the changing regulatory landscape in Washington, where regulators and lawmakers have been tussling over large bank mergers and how they are scrutinized. The recent approvals bode well not only for the parties involved but also for other larger bank mergers in the pipeline.
Let's take a look at these three deals and how investors may be thinking about them.
In perhaps the most significant approval, the Federal Reserve finally signed off on First Citizens Bancshares' (NASDAQ: FCNCA) planned acquisition of CIT Group (NYSE: CIT). The deal, announced in October 2020, was first expected to close in the first half of 2021. But after months of delay, First Citizens and CIT were forced to extend their merger agreement to March 2022. The acquisition will grow First Citizens to about $111 billion of assets.
Source Fool.com
