CAB/Bass: Federal Reserve Approves Synovus Acquisition of World’s Foremost Bank Clearing Last Regulatory Hurdle to Consummation
SEP 6 / 4:48 PM
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Relevant Document:
Federal Reserve Announcement on Synovus Acquisition of World’s Foremost Bank
Event Driven Takeaways
The Federal Reserve Board announced today that it has approved Synovus’ purchase of Cabela’s World’s Foremost Bank (WFB). This clears the last regulatory hurdle for Bass Pro’s acquisition of Cabela’s.
Synovus will be selling WFB’s credit card portfolio and servicing rights to Capital One for $75 million; Synovus will retain WFB’s single branch in Lincoln, Nebraska along with approximately $1.2 billion in insured deposits.
The bank transaction had attracted attention because in January, Capital One had been prohibited by its regulator from purchasing WFB outright due to Capital One being under a consent decree over unrelated deficiencies in its anti-money laundering compliance.
Synovus had also attracted opposition to the transaction from community organizations who wished for Synovus to improve its lending to low and moderate income communities.
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors announced today that it had approved Synovus’ application to acquire Cabela’s World’s Foremost Bank (WFB). Synovus, in turn, is selling WFB’s credit card portfolio and servicing rights to Capital One for $75 million.
This was the final regulatory hurdle standing in the way of Bass Pro Shops $4.5 billion acquisition of Cabela’s. The bank transaction had attracted a high degree of regulatory scrutiny for its unique work-around Capital One’s previous prohibition on acquiring WFB outright. Capital One’s regulatory, the OCC, had prevented that acquisition due to Capital One being under an unrelated consent decree for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering compliance regime.
The transaction had also attracted the opposition of community groups which wanted Synovus to improve its lending commitments and approvals in low-and-moderate income communities and communities of color.