Biden Scrutiny of Labor Competition Extends to Bank Noncompetes

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s updated bank merger guidelines for the first time seek to ban noncompete clauses in employment contracts when banks are eyeing deals, extending the Biden administration’s focus on labor market competition.

Deals that would result in a bank holding more than $100 billion in assets would face heightened FDIC scrutiny under the banking regulator’s proposed overhaul to its bank merger policy announced last week. The revamped guidelines would also explicitly ban the enforcement of noncompete agreements for employees at covered banks of all sizes in certain contexts—a move that antitrust and employment law professors say reinforces ...