(Bloomberg) -- BB&T Corp.'s planned acquisition of SunTrust Banks Inc. has at least one skeptic: House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters.
The deal, creating the sixth-biggest commercial bank in the U.S., raises a lot of questions and should be put under the microscope, Waters said Thursday in an emailed statement.
“This proposed merger between SunTrust and BB&T is a direct consequence of the deregulatory agenda that Trump and congressional Republicans have advanced,” the California Democrat said. “The proposed merger raises many questions and deserves serious scrutiny from banking regulators, Congress and the public to determine its impact and whether it would create a public benefit for consumers.”
The deal, announced Thursday, is the biggest bank tie-up in more than a decade and comes after years of Wall Street executives predicting a wave of combinations following tax cuts and deregulation. Regional-bank stocks rose after the announcement on investor optimism that the deal will spark further merger activity in the industry.
Read more: Bankers ‘Banging on the Doors' as BB&T, SunTrust Spur Deal Talk
To contact the reporter on this story: Hannah Levitt in New York at hlevitt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, David Scheer
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