A group of House Republicans are calling on federal regulators to more quickly approve mergers and acquisition applications. .A letter calling for faster approval was written last month to Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman by House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill of Arkansas; Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Chair Andy Barr of Kentucky; Vice Chair Bill Huizenga of Michigan; and Roger Williams of Texas. They called on the Federal Reserve to quickly implement the Federal Reserve Board’s Office of Inspector General recommendation earlier this year to improve its monitoring of how efficiently and timely it processes M&A applications. The lawmakers also called on the Federal Reserve to review long-pending applications to identify and remove perceived obstacles to final action and look into additional application classes requiring direct board action that could be taken under Federal Reserve Bank delegated authority. While the median processing time for M&A applications fell last year from 2023-24, the average processing time actually increased in 2025, the lawmakers wrote. They said the vast majority of bank mergers are vetted before being submitted to federal banking agencies. “In any vibrant banking sector, some consolidation is expected as well-managed, financially strong firms seek to enter new markets and achieve economies of scale,” they wrote. “Consumers benefit through access to traditional banking products and through wider availability of services. Acquiring banks often bring stronger management to acquired banking organizations, and this management can work to provide more capital to households and businesses in the target bank’s geographic footprint.”The letter comes as part of a broader push to speed up M&A approvals. A House bill introduced last year but not passed would have set a 90-day deadline for the Federal Reserve to approve or deny bank holding company M&A applications. Last October, Bowman said delayed regulatory decisions on M&A applications can damage the value of the target bank, result in higher expenses and create uncertainty for bank employees and customers.
