BB&T to Buy SunTrust in Biggest Bank Merger in a Decade (1)

BB&T Corp. agreed to buy SunTrust Banks Inc. in the world’s largest bank merger in more than a decade, betting that a combination will allow them to keep up with bigger rivals in the arms race for new technology.

The $28 billion deal scraps both companies’ names and headquarters, creating an entirely new bank based in Charlotte, N.C., with branches throughout the Southeast. It will be the sixth-biggest commercial bank in the U.S. by assets, supplanting PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

Industry executives have long predicted a wave of bank mergers that until Feb. 7 had played out only in ...