Coventry Building Society has been given the regulatory green light for its acquisition of the Co-operative Bank plc (LSE:CPBB).
Both parties initially agreed to the £780 million acquisition in May.
With regulatory approval sealed, the merger is expected to close on new year’s day.
The combined group will be spearheaded by Coventry chairman David Thorburn, Coventry chief executive Stephen Hughes and Coventry finance chief Lee Raybould.
It will have a combined pro forma balance sheet of approximately £89 billion.
The UK banking sector has seen an uptick in M&A activity recently, with Nationwide Building Society recently completing a £2.9 billion takeover of Virgin Money UK PLC (LSE:VMUK).