WSFS Financial Corporation announced that its primary subsidiary, WSFS Bank, received approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to merge Beneficial Bank, the primary subsidiary of Beneficial Bancorp, Inc., Philadelphia
WSFS and Beneficial expect to close the mergers of Beneficial and Beneficial Bank into WSFS and WSFS Bank on March 1.
Following the closing of the mergers, WSFS will have approximately $13 billion in assets and will become the largest, locally-headquartered community bank in the Greater Delaware Valley.
About one-quarter of the combined branches will be closed. Earlier, it was announced that a handful of southern New Jersey branches will be sold. A portion of the savings from cost cuts will be used on technology upgrades that are needed in an era when more people are banking via mobile device.
“The OCC’s approval is another major milestone in the journey we started last summer to combine the strengths of two local community banks with more than 350 years of combined experience in serving the communities, residents and businesses of the Greater Delaware Valley,” said Rodger Levenson, WSFS’ new CEO. “We are excited about the progress we have made to date, and we are confident in our ability to execute on our plan to close this transaction in the coming weeks and integrate our systems by late summer.”
Following the closing of the merger, both banks will continue to operate as separate brands until August. At that time, all branches will be converted to the WSFS name.
For more information, visit wsfsbank.com.
