WaFd and EverBank have announced a merger agreement valued at $3.9 billion. Following the completion of the deal, the combined entity will operate under the name EverBank Financial and trade on the stock market using the ticker symbol EVBK. The company will maintain its status as a publicly traded organization.
The leadership team will feature EverBank CEO Greg Seibly as the chief executive of the new entity, while WaFd CEO Brent Beardal will serve as president. The merger aims to combine WaFd’s commercial real estate lending expertise and core deposits with EverBank’s digital consumer banking platform and its 28 financial centers in California.
The combined bank will rank among the top 50 financial institutions in the United States by total assets. Executives noted that the consolidation is driven by the necessity of scale for survival in the current banking industry. Both firms have recently shifted their strategic focus toward commercial banking to diversify their loan portfolios.
EverBank currently operates primarily as a digital bank with a limited physical presence in California and Florida. In contrast, WaFd maintains a network of more than 200 branches across Washington and other Western states. The integration is expected to leverage the complementary strengths of both branch-based and digital-first business models.
