Fed approves First Citizens-CIT, two other big mergers

The Federal Reserve Board has paved the way for several large bank mergers to close. 

The Fed said in a series of press releases Friday that it had approved applications by First Citzens BancShares to buy CIT Group, Webster Financial to buy Sterling Bancorp and WSFS Financial to acquire Bryn Mawr Bank. 

First Citizens announced plans to by CIT last year. It had planned to complete the $2.2 billion acquisition in the first half of this year. The companies announced in September that they had extended the deadline for completing the deal from Oct. 15 to March 1. 

WSFS announced plans to buy Bryn Mawr in March, while the Webster-Sterling deal was unveiled in April.

Three other large deals still need Fed approval: Citizens Financial Group's pending purchase of Investors Bancorp, M&T Bank's acquisition of People's United Financial, and U.S. Bancorp's purchase of MUFG Union Bank.