Megabank Deals to Get Even Tougher Review From Key US Regulator

The biggest banks are effectively barred from engaging in merger activity following the 2008 financial crisis, but a new proposal from a federal banking regulator is making that restriction even more explicit.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which approves mergers involving nationally chartered banks, is “unlikely” to find that a deal involving a so-called global systemically important bank would meet the agency’s standards, the OCC said in a proposed policy statement this week. The policy would apply to major banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. and their subsidiaries, which Basel Committe ...