Fed approves Burke and Herbert, LINKBANCORP merger to form $11 billion bank

Federal Reserve approval has moved Burke & Herbert Financial Services Corp. a decisive step closer to buying LINKBANCORP, Inc., a consolidation that would create an $11.0 billion regional bank holding company and extend Burke & Herbert’s footprint deeper into Pennsylvania and the broader mid-Atlantic.

The Federal Reserve Board said April 10 it approved Burke & Herbert’s application to merge with LINKBANCORP and indirectly acquire LINKBANK, based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. The Board also authorized Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company to merge with LINKBANK and to “establish and operate branches at the locations of LINKBANK,” language that signals regulators expect continuity of service at existing LINKBANK offices at closing.

The combination, announced Dec. 18, 2025 as an all-stock transaction, was valued at about $354.2 million, or $9.38 per LINK common share, based on Burke & Herbert’s $69.45 closing price on Dec. 17, 2025. The companies projected pro forma deposits of about $9.1 billion and more than 100 locations spanning Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, pushing Burke & Herbert into a size tier where scale economics and compliance costs often become more manageable.

The deal has already cleared shareholder votes. At a special meeting on March 25, 2026, Burke & Herbert reported 9,963,159 shares voted for the transaction, 94,232 against, and 107,963 abstentions, with 10,165,354 shares represented. The company’s disclosures tied the vote to a joint proxy statement and prospectus dated Jan. 30, 2026 that was mailed to shareholders on or about Feb. 13.

For customers, the near-term takeaway is operational continuity with the potential for gradual change. LINK is expected to add 24 branches and four loan production offices to Burke & Herbert’s platform; trade reporting on the transaction also described LINK as having about $3.1 billion in assets, $2.7 billion in deposits, and $2.5 billion in gross loans. Over time, integration decisions can affect which overlapping branches remain, whether account packages are standardized, and how quickly digital banking features and treasury services are harmonized across states.

Fed approval also fits a post-turmoil regulatory message: supervisors appear willing to allow well-capitalized, plain-vanilla regional banks to bulk up through traditional bank-to-bank mergers, so long as competitive effects and community obligations remain acceptable. In bank merger reviews, branch-level deposit concentration is commonly evaluated using the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s annual Summary of Deposits survey, a market-by-market lens that can be especially consequential in counties where one or two institutions already dominate local deposits.

Burke & Herbert Chief Executive Officer David P. Boyle called the agreement a “transformative milestone” when the deal was announced, framing the strategy around greater scale for customers, employees, communities, and shareholders. With the Fed’s order in hand, the companies still must complete remaining state-level approvals and customary closing conditions, keeping the timeline oriented toward a later-in-2026 finish that will determine how much additional lending capacity and pricing power the combined franchise ultimately gains in its overlapping markets.