Tag Archives: Edward D. Herlihy

Financial Institutions M&A 2022: Navigating Challenges, Realizing Opportunities

by Edward D. Herlihy, David S. Neil, Richard K. Kim, Lawrence S. Makow, Jeannemarie O’Brien, Nicholas G. Demmo, David E. Shapiro, Joshua M. Holmes, Matthew M. Guest, Mark F. Veblen, Brandon C. Price, Jacob A. Kling, Raaj S. Narayan, Rosemary Spaziani, David M. Adlerstein, Amanda K. Allexon, Lori S. Sherman, Eric M. Feinstein, Steven R. Green, Meng Lu, Amanda K. Toy, Matthew T. Carpenter, Kwon-Yong Jin, and Emily J. Hantverk.

Bank M&A surged in 2021 with total deal value reaching approximately $78 billion, its highest level since 2006, including 13 deals announced with values above $1 billion. Deal activity was driven by consolidation among large regional banks, continuing a trend that was kickstarted by the BB&T/SunTrust merger in 2019 and picked up steam in late 2020 with significant acquisitions by PNC and Huntington. Ironically, the pandemic in some ways provided a stimulus for bank mergers by prolonging low interest rates and slowing loan growth while massive government relief programs bolstered credit quality and increased deposits. At the same time, stay-at-home measures spurred a customer migration from branches to mobile platforms and accelerated increased competition from financial technology companies, necessitating increased investment in technology, often facilitated by greater scale. These combinations illustrated the increasing importance of scale and accelerating digital and technological investment and the significant synergies and value creation that a well-planned and executed strategic merger can create for shareholders and other constituencies on both sides of a transaction.
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Nasdaq Proposes New Listing Rules Regarding Board Diversity

by Edward D. Herlihy and David K. Lam 

On December 1, 2020, The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) submitted a proposal (PDF: 1.51 MB) to the SEC to adopt listing rules related to board diversity. There appears to be some confusion in the news media about the concept. The proposed rule does not impose a hard mandate or quota system, as some of its critics have suggested. Instead, the Nasdaq proposal is a disclosure-based rule that offers companies flexibility to maintain their decision-making authority over the board’s composition.
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Federal Reserve Takes Severe and Unprecedented Action Against Wells Fargo: Implications for Directors of All Public Companies

by Edward D. Herlihy, Richard K. Kim, and Sabastian V. Niles

In a stinging rebuke, the Federal Reserve on February 2nd issued an enforcement action barring Wells Fargo from increasing its total assets and mandating substantial corporate governance and risk management actions.  The Federal Reserve noted in its press release that Wells will replace three current board members by April and a fourth board member by the end of the year.  In addition, the Federal Reserve released three supervisory letters publicly censuring Wells’ board of directors, former Chairman and CEO John Stumpf and a past lead independent director.  These actions are a sharp departure from precedent, both in their severity and their public nature.  They come on the heels of significant actions already taken by Wells, including appointing a former Federal Reserve governor as independent Chair and replacing a number of independent directors as well as its General Counsel.  Continue reading →