Dive Brief:
- Stamford, Connecticut-based Webster Bank agreed to acquire digital deposit-gathering platform interLINK from lending firm StoneCastle Partners, the bank announced Monday.
- Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to wrap in the first quarter of 2023, were not disclosed.
- The agreement comes three months after StoneCastle “unilaterally terminated” a previous deal to sell interLINK to Dallas-based Veritex Community Bank for $91 million in cash and stock, Veritex asserted in a September filing.
Dive Insight:
Buying interLINK would bring more than $9 billion in core deposits to $65 billion-asset Webster.
The move “complements our strategy to build a bank with diverse funding capabilities and technology-enabled businesses," Webster CEO John Ciulla said in a press release Monday, adding that interLINK would provide “a scalable source of liquidity for the company.”
Webster already counts a couple of niche deposit-gathering tools: Its HSA Bank is a formidable force in the health savings account space. Additionally, Webster’s Brio Direct offers high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit.
interLINK facilitates the investment of cash held in roughly 520,000 brokerage accounts into Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)-insured banks, according to Monday’s press release.
Under Monday’s deal, interLINK will continue to serve its broker-dealer and clearing firm clients as it does today, Webster said. The business launched as Intermedium Financial in 2010. StoneCastle Partners bought it in 2017.
interLINK’s previous would-be acquirer, Veritex, accused StoneCastle of “willful and material breaches” of their agreement, according to the bank’s September filing. Veritex said it “is considering all options” with regard to the terminated deal.
Veritex did not cite a reason for the deal’s disintegration but appeared to infer it wasn’t connected to the prospect of regulatory approval. The Dallas bank said it received a green light from the Texas Department of Banking and “was substantially progressed” in getting a sign-off from the FDIC. Veritex’s deal to buy interLINK, initially proposed in March, was expected to close by the end of September 2022. StoneCastle informed Veritex it was pulling out Sept. 1, the Dallas bank said.
Webster, meanwhile, has proved a steady acquirer in recent times. The bank purchased Pearl River, New York-based Sterling Bancorp in a $5.1 billion deal — one of three to receive approval from the Federal Reserve shortly before the end of last year.
