Here's What BB&T's Acquisition Of Susquehanna Means For Maryland — And The East Coast

BB&T Corp.'s $2.5 billion deal to buy Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. is in line to shift the balance of banking power in the Baltimore market, in Maryland and along the East Coast.

And that was the goal.

"Our desire is to be in the top five in the markets which we serve," BB&T President Ricky K. Brown said in an interview. "It was very nice from the perspective of a Maryland growth opportunity."


If approved by regulators, the deal announced earlier Wednesday between Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T (NYSE: BBT) and Lititz, Pa.-based Susquehanna (NASDAQ: SUSQ) would move BB&T closer to being the fourth-largest bank in the Baltimore market — it would trail Wells Fargo Bank for that position by less than 2 percentage points.

More