The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is proposing a faster track for small bank mergers: under a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on September 22, 2026, a “de minimis” merger transaction would be deemed approved five business days after a substantially complete filing is received, or after the Attorney General’s competitive review is complete, whichever is later. It is a proposal, not a rule in effect, and the FDIC is taking public comment until November 23, 2026.
The notice would also change how long the FDIC takes on larger deals and who gets a say. Whether it becomes final depends on what the agency does after the comment period closes, and the notice sets no effective date.
A letter filing that could end in deemed approval
The notice of proposed rulemaking says the FDIC “is inviting comment on a proposed rule that would fundamentally reform important aspects of the FDIC’s approach to processing and evaluating merger transactions subject to the Bank Merger Act.” The centerpiece is a letter filing process with deemed approval for de minimis merger transactions. If the proposal were finalized, a qualifying deal would not wait for a written order. It would be treated as approved once the five-business-day period ran.
The proposal does not cover every merger. A de minimis transaction would have to meet a list of conditions at once. Every institution involved would need a composite rating of 3 or better under the Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System, a satisfactory or better Community Reinvestment Act rating where it has been examined for one, a compliance rating of 1, 2 or 3, and well-capitalized status, with no cease-and-desist orders or written agreements with regulators.
What counts as small enough
Size is the second test. Under the proposal, the assets acquired would have to fall below the adjusted threshold under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and be less than 5 percent of the acquiring institution’s assets. A second category covers a roll-up of operating subsidiaries where legal and financial risk stays unchanged.
The deemed-approval clock is not a flat five days from the day a letter goes in. The notice would start it five business days after the latest of the FDIC’s receipt of a substantially complete filing or the completion of the Attorney General’s competitive review, so the Justice Department’s review sits ahead of the clock.
Standard mergers keep a longer timetable
Deals outside the de minimis category would stay on a slower schedule. The proposal sets 90 days for resulting institutions under $50 billion in assets when board action is not required and no other regulator’s approval is needed, and 150 days for all other transactions. The FDIC could extend those periods for extenuating circumstances, by a maximum of 90 additional days, 180 in total, on the 90-day track, or 135 additional days, 270 in total, on the 150-day track.
Fewer chances for the public to weigh in
The change with the most direct bearing on customers and communities is about public input. The notice would eliminate the public comment period for all de minimis merger transactions, and would shorten it to 15 days for certain corporate reorganizations. The Bank Merger Act still requires the FDIC to consider the convenience and needs of the community to be served, and the proposal keeps that consideration in place while streamlining public notice for certain transaction types.
The notice is a process rule. In the portions reviewed for this report it governs how long the FDIC takes and when notice is given, and it does not describe what happens to account terms, fees or branches when two banks combine.
Credit unions enter the competitive screen
The proposal would also update the initial competitive-effects screening. Under the proposed calculation, the shares of credit unions and the centrally booked deposits of banks and thrift institutions would count in the initial Herfindahl-Hirschman Index screening for merger competition review. The effect would be to count credit unions in the first-pass measure of how concentrated a local market is.
How comments are accepted before November 23
The deadline is a future date as of this report, and the proposal is still open for input. The notice directs comments, which should carry the identifier RIN 3064-AG18, to the FDIC’s Federal Register publications page on fdic.gov, to email at comments@fdic.gov, or to Jennifer M. Jones, Deputy Executive Secretary, Attention: Comments/Legal OES, at 550 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20429, with hand delivery accepted on business days from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. The notice also names Sandra Macias, Associate Director in the FDIC’s Division of Risk Management Supervision, as an agency contact.
Everything above is what the FDIC has proposed, as the September 22 notice records it, and none of it is in effect. The FDIC’s own press release could not be read for this report, so the Federal Register copy is the record relied on here.
Records that outlast a bank merger
The FDIC’s five-business-day proposal for de minimis mergers would shorten the formal process, and the notice would drop the public comment period for those deals. For a household whose bank is bought, that leaves the practical job of knowing what is held where, and keeping proof of balances and disputes through the transition.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit includes the 2-month bank protection rule and a protected-funds and dispute log, which give account balances and any disputed charges one dated record.
Start a protected-funds and dispute log in The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
