An acquisitive East Coast bank has purchased the Bank Leumi USA, a commercial lending bank that has a sizable deposit and lending base in Los Angeles County.

Wayne, N.J.-based Valley National Bancorp offered shares and cash valued at $1.14 billion to buy all of Bank Leumi USA from its parent, Bank Leumi Le-Israel Corp.  

Upon completion of the acquisition, Bank Leumi Le-Israel B.M. will own more than 14% of Valley National’s common stock.

A Leumi spokesman said that Valley National’s name will replace the Leumi corporate name in the U.S. once the purchase is complete.

The combination would make Bank Leumi USA the 21st biggest bank operating in Los Angeles County, according to the Business Journal’s list of largest banks in 2020.

Bank Leumi USA has five branch operations in the United States, including Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Chicago, New York and Miami.  

Leumi’s single branch in Los Angeles is located in downtown’s financial district in the Gas Company Tower at 555 W. 5th St.

In Los Angeles, Leumi reported deposits of $575 million in Los Angeles, about 8% of the bank’s overall deposits of $7.14 billion nationwide, according to figures provided by the bank’s regulatory agency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Roughly $1.02 billion, or 19%, of Leumi’s portfolio of $5.4 billion in outstanding commercial loans nationwide comes from Los Angeles.

Valley National and Leumi will have a combined $1.1 billion in assets in Los Angeles County, with $51 billion nationwide.

Both Valley National and Bank Leumi USA have been heavily involved in commercial real estate lending. Valley National will be able to take advantage of Bank Leumi USA’s offerings for wealthy and middle-market commercial clients, a spokesman said.

“This is positive news for our commercial and technology customers,” said Hanan Friedman, chief executive officer of Bank Leumi Le-Israel B.M.

Bank Leumi USA has a robust pipeline funding tech startups in Los Angeles, though a Leumi spokesman could not immediately confirm which businesses.

Valley National's acquisition of Bank Leumi USA is expected to close in the first three months of 2022.