EverBank Financial Corp has entered into a merger agreement with WaFd Inc. in a reverse merger that will see EverBank merge with and into WaFd to form a new publicly traded regional bank in the US.

The resulting regional bank, which will rename itself from WaFd Inc. to EverBank Financial Corp, will hold total assets of $75 billion and trade on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol EVBK.

The $3.9 billion deal is subject to regulatory approval is expected to complete in early 2027.

WaFd Bank, formerly known as Washington Federal, is headquartered in Seattle and operates 210 branches across Arizona, California, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

EverBank, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, operates over 40 branches across Florida, California and New York. Under the terms of the deal, WaFd Bank will merge with EverBank and continue to operate under the EverBank name.

EverBank Financial Corp’s investors, including funds managed by Bayview Asset Management, Reverence Capital Partners, Sixth Street, Stone Point Capital and Warburg Pincus, will receive common stock in WaFd via a share exchange.

Once the deal has completed, EverBank Financial Corp investors will own 59.2 per cent of the combined company, while WaFd shareholders will own the remaining 40.8 per cent.

EverBank Financial Corp said both organisations will benefit from the deal, with EverBank diversifying its deposits through access to WaFd Bank’s commercial clients and WaFd Bank’s wealth management platform expanding to include EverBank’s “affluent client base”.

Greg Seibly, EverBank Financial Corp’s chief executive, said: “Simply put, our two banks are stronger together. The combination of EverBank and WaFd Bank will open many new opportunities for nationwide growth and financial performance.

“By joining together, we’ll leverage our existing scalable consumer and commercial banking platforms to deliver high-value products and services to clients across the country in the ways that best meet their unique needs and goals. All of us at EverBank are looking forward to partnering with the WaFd Bank team to accomplish even greater things for our clients, employees and communities in the years ahead.”

This is EverBank’s second major acquisition in the past year, with the financial services firm having acquired Sterling Bank and Trust in September 2025 for $261 million. This deal, and subsequent rebranding of the 41-year-old bank’s branches, expanded EverBank into California and New York.

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