Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ACQUISITIONS AND MERGERS NEWS: Reps. ask Fed to streamline bank merger reviews, (Jul 23, 2026)
The lawmakers asked Fed Vice Chair Bowman to implement OIG recommendations, review long-pending applications, and broaden delegated authority for bank merger reviews.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.), Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Chairman Andy Barr (R-Ky.), and all Republican subcommittee members have sent a letter to Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman asking to further speed the Fed's review of bank merger and acquisition applications, pointing to recent improvements but asking for concrete streamlining steps. The representatives sent the July 21, 2026, letter after a Federal Reserve report showed some processing-time gains and identified bottlenecks tied to adverse comments and applications requiring Fed votes.
The letter is in response to the Fed's most recent Supervision and Regulation Report, which the lawmakers said showed the average and median number of days to act on an application was slightly lower during 2025 than in 2024. The same letter pointed to a more mixed pending-application picture: median processing time for all pending applications fell in 2025 compared with 2023 and 2024, while average processing time rose. The members praised Bowman's progress but said the Fed should keep cutting processing time.
The lawmakers focused on two delay points identified in the report. One was the receipt of adverse comments on an application; the other was the inability of certain proposals to receive final action under Federal Reserve Bank delegated authority, requiring a vote by the Board. Because proposals that require Board votes cannot finish at the Reserve Bank level, delegated authority became a central part of the lawmakers' request.
The letter referenced Bowman's own warning that delayed processing can damage target-bank value, create uncertainty for employees and customers, and delay systems, integration contracts, and service agreements.
The legislators asked Bowman to swiftly implement initiatives the Fed agreed to after OIG's March 2026 review, review long-pending applications to identify and remove obstacles to final action, and identify more classes of applications that could move under Federal Reserve Bank delegated authority. The committee press release summarized those steps as implementing OIG recommendations, reviewing long-pending applications, and expanding delegated authority.
OIG recommended in March 2026 that the Fed enhance its ability to monitor the efficiency and timeliness of processing mergers and acquisition applications.
The lawmakers requested that Bowman respond with current and planned merger and acquisition processing initiatives and anticipated project milestones.
News: AcquisitionsMergers Antitrust