TD Bank Group and First Horizon Corp. on Thursday said they’ve called off a planned merger, citing regulatory hurdles.
Toronto-Dominion Bank said in February 2022 it was buying Tennessee’s biggest bank in a $13.4 billion all-cash deal, and shareholders of First Horizon approved the sale in May 2022. But the deal faced greater scrutiny as interest rates have risen and some depositors became more wary of regional banks after the failure of Silicon Valley, Signature and First Republic banks over the past month.
TD Bank has sizeable operations in the U.S., but the acquisition of First Horizon would have expanded the bank’s presence in the Southeast by adding more than $80.7 billion in bank assets, including more than $3.2 billion of deposits in the Chattanooga market — the largest of the 28 commercial banks with operations in metropolitan Chattanooga.
Shares of First Horizon plunged more than 42% before the opening bell Thursday and were trading down by more than 34% at midday Thursday after the TD purchase was scrapped.
In a statement, TD said it did not have a timetable for regulatory approvals to be obtained for reasons unrelated to First Horizon.