Bank of Nova Scotia agreed to acquire Maple Financial Holdings Inc., which owns a small US commercial bank, as the Canadian firm looks to expand its structured-finance business in the American mortgage industry.
The deal, which will see the lender take over MapleMark Bank, is subject to customary closing conditions, Scotiabank said in a statement Friday. It didn't disclose financial terms, but said the deal isn't expected to have a material impact on its earnings.
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MapleMark is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but has operations primarily in Dallas. It had just $1.01 billion in total assets as of the end of March, and 82 full-time employees, according to its latest regulatory filing. Total deposits stood at $828 million.
But buying the company will give Scotiabank the ability to offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deposit insurance to its clients. That's "important for our mortgage capital-markets business and our deposit growth strategy," Travis Machen, head of Scotiabank's capital-markets division, said in the statement.
During a call with analysts earlier this week after reporting fiscal second-quarter earnings, Scotiabank Chief Executive Officer Scott Thomson signaled the bank's interest in expanding in the area through a small acquisition.
"If we could do something to get FDIC insurance, get some more sticky deposits that allowed us to fully capitalize on that opportunity, we would do something in that regard," Thomson said. "When I say tuck-in, what's the size? I don't know, C$200 million, C$300 million, C$400 million — I mean, we're not talking about billions of dollars here."
The FDIC covers deposits up to $250,000 for each account if a bank fails, reassuring customers that their deposits are safe in regulated banks even under adverse circumstances. Such deposits are highly valued by banks because they tend to be stable and carry relatively low interest costs, creating room for banks to generate profits.
On Wednesday, Scotiabank topped quarterly estimates on better-than-forecast results at its Canadian banking division despite putting aside more money than expected for potentially bad loans. It
