The Federal Reserve Board has approved The Bank of Nova Scotia’s application to acquire Maple Financial Holdings, Inc., a Texas bank holding company, and indirectly take control of its subsidiary, MapleMark Bank. The order was issued on October 29, 2026, after the Board reviewed the proposal under the Bank Holding Company Act.
BNS, based in Toronto, plans to complete the acquisition through a merger in which its newly formed subsidiary, Cypress Merger Sub, would merge into Maple Financial. BNS also applied to convert MapleMark from an Oklahoma state member bank into a Texas state member bank, with its main office in Dallas.
The Board received two adverse comments from the same commenter during the public review. It considered those submissions alongside the institutions’ records and other supervisory information. The Board concluded the transaction would not significantly affect competition or concentration in any relevant banking market. The Justice Department had also reviewed the proposal and told the Board it had not concluded that the deal would significantly harm competition.
BNS has approximately $1.1 trillion in consolidated assets and is the third-largest insured depository organization in Canada. Maple Financial has approximately $1 billion in consolidated assets and controls about $837.5 million in deposits. The Board said BNS’s U.S. operations would account for less than 1 percent of the total assets of U.S. insured depository institutions after the transaction.
In assessing the application, the Board reviewed financial condition, management, integration plans, and anti-money-laundering effectiveness. It found the capital, asset quality, earnings and liquidity of BNS, Maple Financial and MapleMark consistent with approval, and said BNS appeared able to cover the transaction’s costs and integrate the operations.
The commenter raised concerns about past enforcement matters involving BNS and affiliates, as well as allegations related to a Canadian nonprofit’s accounts and money-laundering issues at a BNS subsidiary in Peru. The Board said the cited enforcement actions and litigation had been resolved. It also considered BNS’s response, supervisory records and input from Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and determined that the organizations’ managerial resources were consistent with approval.
Sources: Federal Reserve Press Releases.