On July 21, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. French Hill (R-AR), Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Chairman Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), and all subcommittee members sent a letter to Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman urging further action to improve efficiency for its review of bank merger and acquisition applications. The lawmakers wrote that consumers benefit from bank consolidation through access to additional banking products, and that acquiring banks “often bring stronger management to acquired banking organizations,” which can provide more capital to households and businesses in the target bank’s geographic footprint.

The lawmakers contended that most merger proposals formally presented to regulators “are the survivors of a substantial vetting process between motivated private parties while problematic proposals are abandoned before such formal presentation,” and argued that this makes it more important for federal banking agencies to act swiftly on such applications, citing an October 2025 speech in which Bowman stated that the costs of delay “can be significant, damaging the value of the target bank, creating uncertainty for bank employees and customers, and resulting in costly delays for critical systems, integration contracts, and service agreements.” The letter noted that the Fed has made progress, citing its June 2026 Supervision and Regulation Report (previously covered by InfoBytes here), which found that the average and median number of days to act on an application was slightly lower in 2025 compared to 2024. However, the lawmakers highlighted that the report also found delays caused by receipt of adverse comments on applications and by certain proposals’ inability to proceed under Federal Reserve Bank delegated authority, instead requiring a vote by the Board.