Lauren Seay

A recent shelf charter application filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. thinly veils the identity of a target for a possible failed-bank acquisition. S&P Global Market Intelligence requested and received from the FDIC Aspira Bank's June 22 application seeking deposit insurance to establish a bank holding company and acquire all or parts of a bank referred to as "Bank A" in the document.

The vast majority of public US banks are unlikely to adopt semiannual earnings reporting as risks outweigh rewards, and opting out of quarterly filings would only create marginal benefits for smaller financial institutions looking to go public. The US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 6 proposed a rule that would allow public companies to file semiannual earnings reports, following through on an idea floated by President Donald Trump last year.

A proposed overhaul of the CAMELS rating system could be a tailwind for bank M&A by enabling institutions to secure better ratings under less stringent management criteria. On May 19, the interagency Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council released a long-awaited proposal to revise the CAMELS rating system, which measures an institution's capital adequacy, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst.