Growth strategies

The industry's largest acquisition in more than a decade will create the sixth-biggest bank in the country, with assets of more than $442 billion.

John Asbury says his Virginia bank, soon to be renamed Atlantic United Bank, could eventually stretch from Charlotte, N.C., to Baltimore and take on the big players that dominate those markets.

The Virginia company, which recently bought Access National, will become Atlantic Union Bank later this year.

The regional bank is roughly a third of the way to the 260 workers needed to staff the 25 branches it plans to open there over two years.

Both banks' need for scale started the conversation and the lifting of the SIFI threshold helped seal the deal. Here are five takeaways from one of the industry's biggest recent mergers.