Associated Bank, Green Bay, Wis., has received final regulatory approval to acquire Bank Mutual, Brown Deer, Wis. The $30 billion Associated expects to completely convert all 36 of the $2.6 billion Bank Mutual’s branches to its brand by late June or July.
Phillip Flynn, Associated Bank’s president and CEO, said the conversion process will occur alongside other plans the bank has made in reaction to tax legislation signed earlier this year.
“We’ve taken some actions for our colleague base,” Flynn told investors on a conference call. “We think that that’s the appropriate thing to do. We know our customers are going to benefit and shareholders are going to benefit from increased net income. And we will take a look at our capital deployment in relation to that. On top of that, we have a number of significant projects and investments that we’re undertaking this year. We would have done these anyway, but the effect of the tax act makes these things even more attractive for us. We have a significant conversion of our online and mobile platforms occurring in the coming months. We’re going to be converting the commercial deposit platform toward the latter part of the year and in between we’ll have the conversion of Bank Mutual. So we’ve got a lot on our plates and the additional income helps all of that.”