NEW YORK — The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday approved the $66 billion merger between BB&T and SunTrust, clearing the last hurdles in creating the sixth-largest bank in the U.S.
The combination of BB&T Corp., which is based in Winston-Salem, and Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. is the largest bank merger since the Great Recession.
The new institution will be called Truist Bank, which will have more than $425 billion in assets and will be one of the largest retail bank operators in the South. It will be headquartered in Charlotte.
The Federal Reserve required BB&T and SunTrust to sell 30 branches and divest $2.4 billion in assets as a condition of the merger.
The deal is expected to close on Dec. 6, the banks said. The new bank will trade under the stock ticker “TFC” on the New York Stock Exchange.