Company: WTFCN
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001015328-25-000093
Chunk: 13

Company: WINTRUST FINANCIAL CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 13
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missible activities for financial holding companies and their subsidiaries include activities that are related to commerce, such as sales of nonfinancial products or manufacturing. As a result, subject to certain exceptions, the BHC Act generally prohibits us from acquiring direct or indirect ownership or control of voting shares of any company engaged in activities that are not permissible for us to engage in.

Maintaining our financial holding company status requires that the Company and each of our subsidiary banks remain “well-capitalized” and “well-managed” as defined by regulation and that each of our subsidiary banks maintain at least a “satisfactory” rating under the Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”). If we or our subsidiary banks fail to continue to meet these requirements, we could be subject to restrictions on new activities and acquisitions, and/or be required to cease and possibly divest operations that conduct existing activities that are not permissible for a bank holding company that is not a financial holding company.

The BHC Act generally requires us to obtain prior approval from the Federal Reserve before acquiring direct or indirect ownership or control of more than 5% of the voting shares of an additional bank or bank holding company, or to merge or consolidate with another bank holding company. The Bank Merger Act generally requires our subsidiary banks to obtain prior regulatory approval to merge or consolidate with, or acquire substantially all of the assets of or assume deposits of, another bank. We must also be well-capitalized and well-managed, in order to acquire a bank located outside of our home state. 

The standards by which bank and financial institution acquisitions are evaluated have been undergoing review and change by the federal banking agencies.  In September 2024, the OCC adopted a final rule and policy statement regarding its review of Bank Merger Act applications for OCC-supervised institutions. The final rule removes the ability for Bank Merger Act applicants to file a streamlined application form for certain types of acquisitions and removes the expedited review process for Bank Merger Act applications. The policy statement provides indicators of whether a Bank Merger Act application is more or less likely to be approved by the OCC. One indicator for approval is that the resulting institution has total assets of less than $50 billion, which the Company exceeds. The policy statement also provides heightened expectations around the existing statutory factors the OCC is required to consider in evaluating Bank Merger Act applications. 

In September 2024, the Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) withdrew its 1995 Bank Merger Guidelines and issued the 2024 Banking Addendum to 2023 Merger