Huntington and TCF in $6B tie-up as more regionals merge

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Huntington Bank will absorb Detroit’s TCF Financial in an all-stock deal worth $6 billion, the latest in a string of tie-ups that have led to a crop of new and larger U.S. regional banks.

Huntington, with $120 billion in assets, outsizes TCF, which has assets of around $50 billion. The TCF brand will be changed to Huntington, and Detroit’s TCF Center will be renamed after Huntington in the coming years.

That said, Huntington has pledged to maintain TCF’s presence in Detroit, including its plans to occupy a skyscraper currently under construction in downtown Detroit that will contain TCF’s commercial lending business.

“We wanted to remain Detroit’s hometown bank,” said TCF Financial CEO Gary Torgow, in an interview.

The consumer front of the combined bank will will be based in Columbus, Ohio, Huntington’s home town.

Huntington is among the largest participants in the Paycheck Protection Program, the government fund that provided loans to small businesses to help meet payolls during the pandemic and avoid layoffs. The bank, like many others, has had to restructure its operations to allow its thousands of employees to work remotely.

Along with going into Detroit, the merger will give Huntington access to markets like Denver and the Upper Midwest.

“We are going to be much better together,” said Huntington Bank CEO Steve Steinour, noting that Huntington, along with new markets, would also get access to TCF’s equipment finance business and inventory finance businesses.

The Huntington-TCF merger is the latest deal among regional banks, who have looked to get bigger and more competitive against the Wall Street titans like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. The first big deal came last year between BB&T and SunTrust, which merged together to become Trust Bank. Earlier this year, Pennsylvania’s PNC Financial Services Group Inc. announced it would buy the U.S. operations of Spanish bank BBVA.

Under the agreement announced Monday, Huntington’s Steinour will become chairman, president and CEO of the combined holding company and CEO of the bank operations. TCF’s Torgow will become chairman of the board.

The deal is expected to close next year in the second quarter, subject to regulatory approval.