Bob Diamond Sees M&A Taking Out 3,000 US Banks in Trump Era

Bob Diamondsees the number of US lenders dwindling by 3,000 in the next two to three years as regulators embrace consolidation of the industry — a trend that he hopes to help accelerate.

Diamond’s Atlas Merchant Capital, which raised a fund to invest in US regional banks earlier this year, is already working on a number of tie-ups among the 4,500 banks across the country, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He declined to name the lenders his fund is working with.

“With the support of the Treasury and the SEC in terms of approvals of ...