New York Community braces for delayed Flagstar closing

New York Community Bancorp’s pending purchase of Flagstar Bancorp in Troy, Mich., is the latest big bank merger to face a delayed closing.

Thomas Cangemi, chairman and CEO of the $58 billion-asset New York Community, said during a conference call Wednesday that he doesn’t expect the $2.6 billion acquisition of the $27 billion-asset Flagstar to close in 2021 as originally forecast.

New York Community, based in Hicksville, is preparing to complete the acquisition next year.

“Obviously, this is in the hands of our regulators,” Cangemi said during his company’s quarterly earnings call. “It's going through the application process, and we're anticipating closing as soon as we can in 2022.” 

The acquisition, announced in April, still needs approval from the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the New York State Department of Financial Services. 

First Citizen Bancshares in Raleigh, N.C., and CIT Group in New York recently extended the deadline for closing their $2.2 billion merger from Oct. 15 to March 1. The companies originally guided analysts to a completion in the first half of this year. 

Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Wash., and Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., have also indicated that the regulatory approval process is taking longer than expected. The $5.2 billion acquisition, announced earlier this month, is expected to close in mid-2022.