Respond to the following

As in most industries, especially with finance, federal regulations will dictate what companies can and can not do. The Bank Merger Act states that the FDIC can't approve any merger between banking institutions that would create a monopoly in the industry or a conspiracy to create a monopoly. Merger requests must be thoroughly investigated and reviewed as to determine the affects if it is allowed. I do think the merger act is a good thing because a monopoly obviously in the banking industry obviously wouldn't be good. It would severely limit your choices as well as services and interest rates you could qualify for. Right now you could shop around between 10 or more banks with competitive rates, but imagine only have 2 or 3 banks to choose from. I'm sure the interest rates would be way higher and the banks would make a killing. Last month Vystar purchased Heritage Southeast Bancorp located in GA. It had an estimated asset value of $1,500 MM and was purchased for $196 million dollars in cash. I'd imagine this process took at least a couple months and the hurdles might be caused because Vystar is a quickly growing bank through out Northeast, FL. and now Southeast, GA. As well as coming up with that much money cash is no easy task to do.