Members of the Virginia Credit Union League and the League of Southeastern Credit Unions & Affiliates voted Thursday to approve the Virginia league’s consolidation with the regional organization. The merger will be in effect Jan. 1, 2025, the two organizations announced Friday.
“Thanks to the support of the membership, we are embracing a powerful opportunity to strengthen credit union engagement and our collective advocacy impact,” Jeff Bentley, VACUL board chair and president and CEO of Northwest Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. “We are now positioned to provide more customized services, innovative solutions and a stronger voice for our members.”
Announced in September, the consolidated group will represent 386 credit unions and 31.5 million members in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Virginia.
LSCU President Samantha Beeler will lead the association, and the combined service corporation would be led by Steve Willis, president of Leverage, which encompasses 12 companies and more than 30 partnerships in the credit union industry. Beeler and Willis were named in April as dual executive leaders of LSCU, which represents nearly 300 credit union members with almost $200 billion in assets and 12.4 million members.
“We are elated to bring together the best of both legacy organizations to provide greater value for our members and the communities they serve,” Beeler said. “Together, we will be a powerful voice and resource in supporting and growing credit unions across our expanded region.”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering Navy Federal Credit Union to refund more than $80 million to customers and pay a $15 million civil penalty for allegedly charging illegal overdraft fees.
CFPB announced the actions against the nation’s largest credit union on Thursday. CFPB alleges that from 2017 to 2022, Vienna-based Navy Federal charged customers surprise overdraft fees on certain ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases, despite their accounts showing sufficient funds at the transaction times.
The $15 million civil penalty will go to CFPB’s victims relief fund, called the Civil Penalty Fund. According to a CFPB news release, the penalty is the largest that CFPB has levied against a credit union for illegal overdraft fees.
“Navy Federal fully cooperated with the CFPB’s investigation and we will continue to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, just as we always have and as we believe we did here,” The credit union said in a statement. “Nevertheless, this settlement enables us to focus on serving our members and their families. As a member-owned, not-for-profit credit union, we are focused on putting our members first.”
Additionally, the credit union stated, “over the past several years, Navy Federal has continued to comply with evolving expectations — including by automatically refunding certain overdraft fees since January 2023.” It will also eliminate “nonsufficient fund fees” for personal checking accounts in the first quarter of 2025, a reform it announced in October.
As of Sept. 30, Navy Federal had $180 billion in assets. The credit union has 360 branches, more than 14 million members and about 24,000 employees.
“Navy Federal illegally harvested tens of millions of dollars in junk fees, including from active-duty service members and veterans,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “The CFPB’s work to rid the market of illegal junk fees has saved American families billions of dollars.”
The CFPB said in a news release it found that Navy Federal violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act through charging surprise overdraft fees on purchases made with sufficient funds in consumers’ accounts at the transaction times and by charging overdraft fees resulting from delayed peer-to-peer payments that had undisclosed processing times.
Through its Optional Overdraft Protection Service, Navy Federal charged consumers $20 for most overdraft transactions and collected nearly $1 billion in overdraft fees from 2017 to 2021, according to the CFPB.
According to the CFPB, Navy Federal charged customers overdraft fees if a customer’s account had a negative balance once a transaction posted, although the account had had enough money to cover the transaction when the consumer made it. The credit union collected an average of $44 million annually in these fees, the CFPB alleges.
Navy Federal, the CFPB alleges, also charged overdraft fees when customers tried to use funds from payment services like Zelle, PayPal and Cash App that showed in Navy Federal systems as immediately available to spend but were still processing. The credit union did not disclose that payments received after 10 a.m. Eastern time initially, and later after 8 p.m. EST, wouldn’t post until the next business day. Navy Federal collected at least $4 million from these fines, according to the CFPB.
“We will continue to support and invest in our members — including the military, veterans and their families — to help them meet their financial goals,” Navy Federal said in a statement.
Atlantic Union Bank is expanding further into Northern Virginia and Maryland with the $1.6 billion purchase of Maryland’s Sandy Spring Bank, an acquisition announced Monday.
The two banks’ parent companies, Atlantic Union Bankshares and Sandy Spring Bancorp, have entered into a merger agreement that would create a combined bank with $39.2 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, they said in a news release.
Based in Olney, Maryland, Sandy Spring had $14.4 billion in assets, $11.7 billion in total deposits and $11.5 billion in total loans as of Sept. 30, and it has 53 branch offices in Maryland and Northern Virginia. Upon completion of the deal, Richmond-based Atlantic Union will have total deposits of $32 billion and gross loans of $29.8 billion, according to Monday’s statement.
Sandy Spring also has two wealth management subsidiaries, Rembert Pendleton Jackson and West Financial Services, that will be part of the acquisition, and will approximately double Atlantic Union’s wealth management business, increasing its assets under management by more than $6.5 billion.
“At our 2018 investor day, I noted that part of our long-term vision was to complete the ‘Golden Crescent’ from Baltimore through Washington, D.C., and Richmond to Hampton Roads, and recreate a banking franchise that had not existed since the 1990s,” John C. Asbury, Atlantic Union’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “With today’s announcement of our partnership with Sandy Spring, Atlantic Union will create a preeminent regional bank, with Virginia as its linchpin, that spans the lower mid-Atlantic into the Southeast and that is committed to the communities it serves.”
By deposit market share in the state as of June 30, Sandy Spring Bank is the largest regional bank in Maryland and the seventh largest in the state overall. By deposit market share in Virginia as of June 30, Atlantic Union Bank is Virginia’s largest regional bank and its fifth largest bank overall.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, each outstanding share of Sandy Spring common stock will be converted into the right to receive 0.9 shares of Atlantic Union common stock, a value of about $34.93 per Sandy Spring common share, based on Atlantic Union’s closing stock price on Oct. 18.
Both banks’ boards have approved the agreement, and the banks expect to complete the transaction by the end of the third quarter of 2025, they said in a statement.
Monday’s announcement follows Atlantic Union’s acquisition of Danville’s American National Bank and Trust, which was completed in April. The $507 million deal was announced in July 2023.
Atlantic Union has 129 branches throughout Virginia and in parts of North Carolina and Maryland, according to Monday’s announcement.
In terms of potential consolidation of Virginia branches, Asbury said during a virtual press conference: “Where we see overlap, we have identified potentially five locations in Northern Virginia that would be candidates for consolidation simply because of their very close proximity,” but said it would be premature to provide details on those locations.
Additionally, he said, “We would anticipate retaining 100% of all branch personnel. The branch network in the area is large enough to absorb them.”
Branches wouldn’t close until after systems are converted post-merger, which would likely be the first quarter of 2026, said Bill Cimino, senior vice president and director of investor relations for Atlantic Union.
The bank is also planning to open three branches — one in Baltimore, one in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and one in Prince William County — but does not yet have specifics as it needs to assess location options, Asbury said.
“Our partnership with Atlantic Union is the right long-term decision for our shareholders, clients and employees. This combination will deliver enhanced scale, diversity in the market, and capabilities for our clients, and it will provide greater opportunities for our employees to grow within a larger organization,” Daniel J. Schrider, Sandy Spring’s chair, president and CEO, said in a statement. “Sandy Spring Bank and Atlantic Union Bank share a people-first approach to doing business and serving our communities, and together we will add even greater value to the individuals, families and businesses we serve across our expanded footprint.”
Schrider and two other Sandy Spring board members will join Atlantic Union’s board upon closing of the transaction.
Suffolk-based TowneBank has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Midlothian’s Village Bank and its parent company, Village Bank and Trust Financial, a deal worth approximately $120 million, the banks announced Tuesday.
“Our TowneBank family is humbled and excited to partner with Village Bank and its team members,” TowneBank Executive Chairman G. Robert Aston Jr. said in a statement. “We believe our partnership can bring additional products and expanded services to the clients of Village Bank while meaningfully enhancing our Richmond presence, which is core to our franchise and future growth.”
The merged companies will have total assets of $17.8 billion, $14.9 billion in deposits and $12.1 billion in loans, based on financial information reported as of June 30.
Shareholders of the Village Bank parent will receive $80.25 in cash per share for each share of its outstanding common stock. Based on Village Bank and Trust Financial’s common stock currently outstanding, the total transaction value would be about $120 million.
“We’re excited to partner with TowneBank,” Jay Hendricks, president and CEO of Village Bank, said in a statement. “This merger is not just a business decision but a strategic move to enhance the value we deliver to our customers.”
The boards of directors of TowneBank and the Village parent have approved the definitive agreement. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025, pending regulatory approval and Village shareholders’ approval.
Founded in 1999, TowneBank has more than 50 locations across Central and Eastern Virginia and North Carolina. As of June 30, it had $17.1 billion in total assets.
Village Bank was also founded in 1999. It has nine branch offices serving the greater Richmond area and Williamsburg. As of June 30, parent company Village Bank and Trust Financial had total assets of $747.7 million.
Chain Bridge Bancorp, the McLean holding company for Chain Bridge Bank, National Association, is planning to go public.
On Friday, the company filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of Class A common stock. The number of shares and price range for the IPO have not yet been set.
The proposed offering would start “as soon as practicable after the registration statement is declared effective,” according to the company’s SEC filing. Chain Bridge shares would trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CBNA.
As of June 30, Chain Bridge had $1.4 billion in assets and $1.3 billion in total deposits. Chain Bridge had deposit clients in 48 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. About 38% of its total deposits came from Washington, D.C., and about 32% came from Virginia.
Chain Bridge Bancorp first announced it was evaluating an IPO in May. According to Friday’s SEC filing, the company would use the net proceeds from the proposed IPO to repay an outstanding balance of $10 million on an unsecured line of credit with another bank that is scheduled to mature on Dec. 5 and “for general corporate purposes,” which could include “funding potential strategic expansion.”
Chain Bridge Bancorp was incorporated in May 2006, and the bank opened in August 2007. Its CEO, John Brough, joined the company in July 2006 and became founding CEO of the bank in August 2007.
Piper Sandler & Co., Raymond James & Associates and Hovde Group are the book-running managers for the IPO.
In June 2020, California medical supply company Blue Flame Medical sued Chain Bridge, alleging the bank was responsible for destroying the company’s reputation and making it lose a $600 million state contract for personal protective equipment. In March 2023, a panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia’s ruling in favor of Chain Bridge.
The Virginia Credit Union League has signed a letter of intent to consolidate with the League of Southeastern Credit Unions & Affiliates, the trade organization representing credit unions in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
Virginia credit unions will decide this fall whether to merge VACUL’s associations, foundations and service corporations with those of the LSCU, with results set to be announced in November, according to VACUL’s announcement Tuesday. If successful, the merger will create an organization representing 386 credit unions and 31.5 million members that would be led by LSCU President Samantha A.M. Beeler, and the combined service corporation would be led by Steve Willis, president of Leverage, which encompasses 12 companies and more than 30 partnerships in the credit union industry. Beeler and Willis were named in April as dual executive leaders of LSCU, which represents nearly 300 credit union members with almost $200 billion in assets and 12.4 million members.
VACUL, a state trade association, represents 98 credit unions in Virginia. The league offers training and operation resources for members and also lobbies the state legislature and other governmental bodies on behalf of the industry.
“With advocacy being at the core of our focus as an association and board, we believe this move to be in the best interest of credit unions as it will undoubtedly increase our advocacy impact and influence,” Jeff Bentley, VACUL board chair and president and CEO of Northwest Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our due diligence to identify a path forward that will be beneficial to all Virginia credit unions.”
According to Credit Union Times, this is the first proposed merger of state leagues since 2022.
In February, Carrie Hunt left VACUL as its president and CEO, and Chief Operating Officer Karima Freeman stepped in on an interim basis.
NextMark Credit Union President and CEO Joe Thomas, who chairs the VACUL Transition Committee, added, “While we seek member feedback during this discovery phase, we remain committed to advancing our collective industry and serving our members with greater impact. We believe the Virginia Credit Union League and the League of Southeastern Credit Unions share the same vision for success for credit unions.”
This announcement comes after the Virginia Bankers Association and the Maryland Bankers Association merged in July, creating the Mid-Atlantic Bankers Association holding company headquartered in Glen Allen.
Who are Virginia’s most powerful and influential leaders in business, government, politics and education this year? Find out in the fifth annual edition of the Virginia 500: The 2024-25 Power List.
Steve Yeakel, president and CEO of the Henrico County-based Virginia Association of Community Banks, announced Tuesday he will retire at the end of the year, and will be succeeded by Corey Connors, executive director of the Virginia Forestry Association.
Connors will join the professional organization in September and assume duties as president and CEO of VACB beginning Oct. 8, according to a news release. Founded in 1977, VACB represents more than 100 community banks and vendor partners. Yeakel departs the organization after 13 years, 12 of which he spent as VACB’s leader.
“Corey’s strategic drive and his long, distinguished career in the association management community make him the perfect choice to further define the VACB’s value proposition, expand its professional development programs, and engage a new generation of community bankers,” VACB Chair Joseph Witt said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to welcome Corey aboard.”
Connors was executive director of the forestry association for nearly five years and was responsible for its direction and annual budget, and before, he served in senior management positions at several other state and national associations, according to Tuesday’s announcement.
“I am excited to join VACB,” Connors said. “Having advocated on behalf of small businesses throughout my entire career, I understand the importance of community banks as the lifeblood of local cities and towns across Virginia. I look forward to working with the board, staff and key stakeholders to uphold the organization’s strong priorities while expanding VACB’s reach.”
VACB advocates for smaller community banks, many of which are merging or being acquired by larger banks in recent years, and representing their interests in state and federal legislature.
Banking mergers and acquisitions are picking back up again after the slowest year in recent history, and Virginia is no exception.
Last year marked a modern low in merger and acquisition activity, with only 98 deals completed nationwide. That’s not just the lowest level of activity since the pandemic — it’s the slowest year since 2004. Industry analysts with Morgan Stanley Research predicted the trend would reverse in 2024, forecasting a potential 50% increase in mergers and acquisitions.
The banking industry has steadily trended toward consolidation since the 1994 passage of a federal law that allowed banks to branch across state lines. Increasingly tighter margins, new regulations and the need to adjust to changing technology has pushed banks to become more efficient, with larger banks able to tap into economies of scale not available to smaller operations.
“Virginia’s mirrored a lot of the national trend line on M&A activity,” says Matthew Bruning, executive vice president of government and member relations for the Virginia Bankers Association.
After a pandemic slowdown for banking mergers and acquisitions, activity picked up a little in 2023, “but it was still anemic,” Bruning says. “I’ve seen prognosticators talking about ’24 picking up, and rightfully so. The dynamic hasn’t changed as far as the drivers on that, with compliance costs and the burden on that side of things, [and] the need for economies of scale for banks of all sizes. What’s different over the last decade is the lack of new bank formation.”
The most recent batch of Virginia bank mergers and acquisitions varies by deal, but a common factor has seen banks seeking to grow in new markets, especially in metro areas.
These banks see an opportunity to “look at markets they’re not in, and to build scale and invest in technology to reach customers, while still having commitment to their legacy markets,” Bruning says.
That applies not only to large banks, but smaller ones as well. Since 2012, there have been 48 mergers among community banks in Virginia alone, says Virginia Association of Community Banks President and CEO Steve Yeakel.
Banks of all sizes are affected by the “challenges of scale and the regulatory environment,” Yeakel says. “It’s fair to say this trend will continue in some way or another to the foreseeable future.”
Credit card combo
Virginia already has seen deal activity increase among banks and credit unions over the last year.
The biggest, by far, is McLean-based Capital One Financial’s blockbuster proposed purchase of Discover Financial Services for $35.3 billion. If federal regulators sign off on the all-stock deal, it would be Capital One’s largest ever acquisition and would make it the nation’s biggest credit card lender.
“We believe strongly that this merger will increase competition among banks and credit card issuers and payment networks, and provide significant benefits for consumers, merchants and the communities that we serve,” Capital One founder, Chairman and CEO Richard Fairbank said during the bank’s first quarter earnings call in April. “We believe the facts will show that this transaction is both pro-competitive and pro-consumer, bringing our best-in-class products and services to a broader set of consumers and small businesses and greatly enhancing opportunities and benefits for merchants.”
The proposed deal has received pushback from both Democratic and Republican U.S. senators. President Joe Biden also has taken a wary approach to large mergers, fighting an airline consolidation and issuing an executive order calling on the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other agencies to update their guidelines “to provide more robust scrutiny” of banking mergers.
The Capital One-Discover transaction is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025. At close, Capital One shareholders will own about 60% of the combined company and Discover shareholders will hold the remaining approximately 40%.
“It’s a really big deal,” says Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. “Those are two giant companies and two really significant players. The credit card space is already so thoroughly dominated by a relatively small number of financial institutions that I understand people’s concern about further consolidation. But I also think that one of the things that is really interesting about this is the payment network aspect of this.”
The deal grants Capital One access to Discover’s payment processing services. The combined company’s sheer size would give it the potential to significantly influence the industry’s payment systems, a fact that’s attracting the attention of many others in the industry.
“We’re not concerned about direct impacts,” says Yeakel with the Virginia Association of Community Banks, but “we’re watching, thinking closely about what that merger would do in the payment system.”
Schulz explains: “With most credit cards, you have the payment network who provides the infrastructure that lets the transactions happen. Visa and Mastercard are the giant gorilla behemoths of the space. American Express is its own thing, both card issuer and network. There’s already been a [big] push to inject more competition against Visa and Mastercard through legislation, but the possibility of a giant issuer like Capital One having a payment network of their own really presents the possibility of having another payment network that’s an even more serious competitor.”
Despite the enormity of the deal, Schulz speculates it probably won’t affect consumers all that much.
“Personally, I think it may not have that much of an impact, especially if they let the Discover brand of credit card stand, because the space is already dominated by relatively small group of players,” Schulz says. “I don’t know that this is going to change things all that much.”
Industry change
The Capital One-Discover deal stands out as a Virginia mega-deal, but it’s far from the only banking M&A activity in the commonwealth playing out this year.
Richmond-based Atlantic Union Bank completed its $407 million merger with Danville-based American National Bank in May. That deal was first announced in June 2023 and approved by the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors in February 2024.
The merger, Atlantic Union President and CEO John C. Asbury says, was the culmination of a 40-year relationship between the banks.
“For better or for worse, consolidation is a reality in this industry,” Asbury says. “The need to invest in technology, increased regulatory requirements and changing customer expectations have driven a lot of change in the industry. It means a lot of investment needs to occur. From American National Bank’s standpoint, they really had two choices: to make change happen on their own over time, which is expensive, or to join with a friendly party that they knew quite well.”
The consolidation will mean expanded lending capacity and a more robust wealth management and trust business for the newly merged bank, Asbury says. Atlantic Union also picked up American National’s branches, which expanded its reach in Southern Virginia, Roanoke and North Carolina.
“If you look at the map, it’s a hand-in-glove fit,” Asbury says. “It’s perfect infill.”
The merger cements Atlantic Union’s ascendance as a growing, mid-sized bank. Atlantic Union started as a community bank, but although it still considers itself a community bank compared with the nationals, it’s larger than the Virginia Association of Community Banks’ definition, which caps its membership at $10 billion in assets. The combined Atlantic Union has total assets of $23.7 billion.
Another ongoing Virginia merger, though, remains firmly within the narrower definition of “community bank.”
Bigger footprints
Strasburg-based First National is in the process of acquiring Prince George-based Touchstone Bankshares in an all-stock transaction worth roughly $47 million. First Bank will combine with Touchstone to form what will be the ninth largest community bank in Virginia, with 32 branches and expected total assets of about $2.1 billion.
The deal comes on the heels of First Bank’s 2021 acquisition of the Bank of Fincastle, which expanded its footprint from the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia into the Roanoke metro area. The Touchstone deal would take it into Southern Virginia, parts of North Carolina, and the lucrative Richmond region. If approved, the merger would be implemented in early 2025.
CEO Scott Harvard arrived at First Bank in 2011. Four years later, it acquired six branches from Bank of America when the national bank withdrew from smaller communities. Places like Staunton, Waynesboro and Woodstock have become First Bank’s bread and butter. With the Touchstone deal, it’s expanding its footprint with seven new branches in the Richmond metro area.
“Even though they’ve got metro Richmond, they’re on the fringes of it and serve smaller communities — which are culturally very similar to the Shenandoah Valley,” Harvard says. “They’re community-oriented, which is what we like. That’s who we are as a community banking company.”
Banks in general operate under increasingly tight margins that particularly squeeze smaller banks, Harvard says. That’s been further exacerbated during the last couple of years when short-term interest rates have exceeded long-term rates, creating an inverted yield curve that makes it challenging for banks to attain viable margins.
That dynamic has further pushed banks to scale up, all but ensuring a continuation of the industry trend toward mergers.
“In 1994, we had 164 banks in Virginia, but every 10 years since, the number of banks headquartered here has dropped by about 25% to 30%,” says Harvard at First National. “In 2014, it was down to 91 banks. In 2024, there are 60 or 61 banks in Virginia. It’s likely you’ll continue to see consolidation at a similar-type pace. You see it across the country as well. I don’t know it’ll cascade or be a huge waterfall, but it will continue to happen over time.”
Another deal occurred in May, when Alexandria-based Burke & Herbert completed its acquisition of West Virginia-based Summit Financial Group. The all-stock deal, valued at $371.5 million, creates a bank with $8.3 billion in assets. As with the Atlantic Union and First Bank deals, this merger expands Burke & Herbert’s reach, essentially tripling its footprint, growing it from its current presence in Richmond, Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia to include Delaware, Kentucky, West Virginia and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
“This alliance doesn’t just extend our influence; it strategically positions us for future growth,” bank President Charles Maddy III said in a statement. “It also lays the foundation for cultivating richer relationships and underscores our aspiration to become the most sought-after community bank in our markets.”
Credit unions consolidate too
It’s not just Virginia banks that are consolidating; Virginia credit unions are merging as well.
In June, Apple Federal Credit Union and NextMark Credit Union, both based in Fairfax County, announced plans to merge, with the deal slated to close in November. Founded in 1956, Apple has $4.4 billion in assets and 245,000 members, and will integrate the much smaller NextMark into its operations. Post-merger, Apple will have nearly $5 billion in assets and about 260,000 members.
An even bigger credit union deal was announced in January, as Richmond-based Virginia Credit Union announced it would merge with Roanoke-based Member One to create the third largest credit union in Virginia. If the deal is approved, the newly merged credit union will have $6.8 billion in assets, 37 branches and nearly 500,000 members.
Virginia Credit Union is the larger of the two operations, with 22 branches, mostly in the Richmond area, compared with Member One’s 15 branches across Roanoke, Lynchburg and the New River Valley.
According to Deb Wreden of the Virginia Credit Union, the deal has received initial approval from the National Credit Union Administration. Pending a positive vote by Member One’s membership, the merger is planned to take effect on Aug. 1.
Virginia Credit Union spokesman Lewis Wood cited “the costs, challenges and requirements associated with regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, technology, fraud and the realities of today’s economy” as factors in the merger.
Credit union mergers look different from bank mergers due to their ownership by members instead of stockholders. But credit unions also have been consolidating on a steady clip, from 263 mergers in 2014 to 146 in 2023, with the decrease due in part to the shrinking number of credit unions overall. Virginia has effectively mirrored that national trend, with several mergers each year.
“The rate of mergers has been fairly steady,” says J.T. Blau, chief advocacy officer of the Virginia Credit Union League. “Mergers happen for different reasons. One of the reasons is that compliance burden, the regulatory burden that all credit unions face. Compliance costs continue to rise and are difficult for small credit unions. A lot of regulations are one-size-fits-all and can weigh heavily on smaller credit unions.”
Those macro trends continue to pressure banks and credit unions to consolidate. The process can be alarming for customers, but banks are handing it well, says Bruning of the Virginia Bankers Association.
“We’ve seen it every time there’s a merger announcement: There are certainly questions from customers, but banks do a great job explaining what’s going on through the entire process,” Bruning says. “Be patient and check in with your bank if it’s going through that process. It usually ends up being able to offer more products and services in the end.”
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