First Citizens Agrees to Purchase CIT Group for $2 Billion (1)

First Citizens BancShares Inc. agreed to buy CIT Group Inc. in a deal valued at more than $2 billion, this year’s second-biggest regional bank merger.

The all-stock transaction will create the 19th-largest U.S. bank based on assets, the two companies said in a statement Friday. It will operate under the First Citizens name and be based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“We have long admired CIT’s market-leading commercial business, including their strong market position across multiple asset classes,” First Citizens Chief Executive Officer Frank Holding, who will keep the CEO title after the merger, said in the statement. “CIT has ...