DETROIT (AP/WWJ) — Two Midwest-based banks plan to merge to create a bank with $45 billion in assets that will be based in Detroit.
Detroit-based Chemical Financial Corp. and Wayzata, Minnesota-based TCF Financial Corp. announced Monday the signing of an agreement under which the companies will combine in what they described as an all-stock "merger of equals."
Plans call for TCF to merge into Chemical Financial, and the combined holding company and bank will operate under the TCF name and brand. The company will have more than 500 branches in nine states, including "significant operation centers" in Minneapolis and Chicago.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Chemical Financial, the holding company for Chemical Bank, last year moved its headquarters from Midland, Michigan, to Detroit and announced plans for a 20-story building downtown.
The Detroit News reported this would make it one of the largest 50 banks in the country, "nearly returning Detroit to the stature it once held in the financial industry when Comerica Bank was based here. When Comerica, which traces its Detroit roots to 1949, moved its headquarters to Dallas, Texas, in 2007, it had $58 billion in assets (about $72 billion today). It left Ally Financial Inc. as the only major bank still based in the city."
"(The merger) will provide much more robust opportunity for Detroit and Michigan," Chemical Financial Corp. Chairman Gary Torgow told The Detroit News on Monday.