Growing Bank Antitrust Scrutiny Threatens Effort to Ease Mergers

The Justice Department’s plans to stiffen bank merger reviews will potentially complicate bank regulators’ efforts to shore up ailing regional banks through consolidation.

Following the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank, some top bank regulators have acknowledged a need to use mergers to boost smaller lenders.

But the regulators’ desire to improve financial stability through deals may run headlong into renewed antitrust scrutiny of bank mergers. That could potentially chill deals at a time when uncertainties cloud the industry’s outlook.

The DOJ’s antitrust division “is modernizing its approach to investigating and reporting on the full ...