BankAmerica Corp. and NationsBank Corp.’s $57.7 billion merger won approval Monday from the Federal Reserve, clearing its last major regulatory hurdle.
The Justice Department had given its consent Friday.
The banks agreed to sell 17 branches with $492 million in deposits in New Mexico, the only region where the two companies overlapped enough to concern regulators.
The boards of San Francisco-based BankAmerica, the nation’s fifth-largest bank, and Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank, the third largest, are set to approve the merger Sept. 23.
The two banks announced the transaction on April 13. It would create a bank that stretches from Florida to Washington. As a bank holding company, the new BankAmerica would have almost $570 billion in assets.
The new company would have 29 million customers in 22 states.
The combined company will control almost 8.5 percent of the nation’s bank deposits, near the 10 percent limit that any one bank can have under federal law.
