Fifth Third hopes CU consideration will diminish Comerica deal divestitures

Matthew Bornfreund spoke with S&P Global Market Intelligence about Fifth Third Bancorp's hopes to avoid deposit divestitures and branch sales related to its proposed acquisition of Comerica Inc. The issue at hand is whether financial regulators will consider nonbank competition in its evaluation of Fifth Third's total market Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) levels in one market.

Matthew noted, "The agencies can do additional analysis if the HHI is not accurately reflective of the reality of the market, which happens a lot in small counties, small markets. That's pretty common because one branch changing hands will significantly affect the HHI versus in New York City."

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