The Federal Reserve has approved Santander's purchase of Webster Financial, and the combined bank would hold 23.8 percent of every deposit in Connecticut

Twenty three point eight percent. That is the share of all deposits held by insured depository institutions in Connecticut that Santander Bank would control once it takes in Webster Bank, and Connecticut caps a single organisation at 30 percent.

The Board of Governors approved the application on Tuesday afternoon. Banco Santander, S.A. of Madrid and its subsidiary Santander Holdings USA, of Boston, had applied under section 3 of the Bank Holding Company Act to acquire Webster Financial Corporation of Stamford and, through it, Webster Bank. Webster Financial would then merge into Santander Holdings USA, and Webster Bank into Santander Bank. The Comptroller of the Currency approved the bank-level merger on 12 June.

The sizes

Banco Santander has consolidated assets of about $2.1 trillion and is the largest banking organisation in Spain. Its American holding company has about $168.1bn and ranks 31st among insured depository organisations in the United States. Webster has about $85.5bn and ranks 41st. Put together, the two would rank 19th, with about $253.6bn of assets and about $150.3bn of deposits, which is still less than 1 percent of all deposits held by insured depository institutions in the country.

Those national figures are as of 31 March this year. The state figures below are as of 30 June last year.

Connecticut is where it concentrates

Santander Bank is the 13th largest bank in Connecticut today, with about $1.9bn of deposits, or 1.1 percent of the state. Webster Bank is second, with about $40.4bn, or 22.8 percent. Together they would be first, at about $42.3bn and 23.8 percent.

Nowhere else does the deal move the needle much. Massachusetts stays fourth, at about $35.2bn and 5.8 percent. New York goes from 23rd to 11th, and still comes to 1.3 percent of that state.

The Bank Holding Company Act bars an interstate acquisition that would leave the acquirer with 30 percent or more of the deposits in a state where both parties already operate, and the order records that Connecticut and Massachusetts each impose a 30 percent limit of their own. The combined Connecticut share lands about six points under it.

The comments and the vote

Notice of the proposal was published in the Federal Register on 7 April, and four adverse comments came in. One commenter later withdrew the objection. The Board states that it considered the claims made, alongside information supplied by the applicants and information from the supervisory process.

The vote was unanimous. Chairman Warsh, Vice Chair Jefferson, Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman and Governors Powell, Waller, Cook and Barr all voted for the action, and the order records nobody voting against.

The deal may not be consummated before the fifteenth calendar day after Tuesday, or later than three months after it, unless the Board or the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston extends the period for good cause.