Feb. 7 (UPI) -- BB&T and SunTrust announced the merger of their two banks Thursday, creating the nation's sixth-largest bank with $442 billion in assets and covering 10 million households mostly in the eastern United States.
The new bank will be headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. The institutes said it would maintain operations in Atlanta, where SunTrust headquarters are located, and Winston-Salem, N.C., where BB&T is based. A new name for the merged bank will be announced after closing.
The banks said the deal is worth $66 billion. BB&T will own 57 percent of the shares and SunTrust will control the remaining 43 percent. Data from the banks, which have customers in eight eastern states, indicate they expect to close the deal by the end of the year.
"This is a true merger of equals, combining the best of both companies to create the premier financial institution of the future," BB&T chief executive officer Kelly S. King said in a statement. "It's an extraordinarily attractive financial proposition that provides the scale needed to compete and win in the rapidly evolving world of financial services."
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the deal taps into the two banks' disparate strengths. SunTrust's corporate banking services will pair with BB&T's strength in community banking, the newspaper reported.
"Our shared culture embraces the disruption of technology and we will take this innovative mindset to expand our leadership in the next chapter of these historic brands," William H. Rogers, Jr. chief executive officer of SunTrust, said in a statement.
"With our geographic position, enhanced scale and leading financial profile, these two companies will achieve substantially more for clients, teammates, associates, communities, and shareholders than we could alone," he continued.