WaFd Keeps Its Listing as EverBank Takes the Name

EverBank Financial and WaFd agreed on Sept. 7, 2026 to a $3.9 billion reverse merger that would create a regional bank with about $75 billion in assets. WaFd Inc. stays the public company. It then changes its name to EverBank Financial Corp and trades on Nasdaq as EVBK.

EverBank’s investors, including TIAA, would own 59.2% of the combined firm. WaFd holders would own 40.8%. Greg Seibly, EverBank’s chief executive, becomes CEO. Brent Beardall, WaFd’s CEO, becomes president.

WaFd Keeps the Listing and Loses the Name

The holding-company merger runs one way on paper and the other way in control. EverBank Financial Corp merges into WaFd Inc., and WaFd Inc. is the surviving listed parent. Existing EverBank shareholders receive WaFd common stock. EverBank is the accounting acquirer, so the books follow the Florida bank.

The name does not follow the legal survivor. After closing, WaFd Inc. becomes EverBank Financial Corp and the WAFD ticker dies. The operating bank follows the same path. WaFd Bank, a Washington state-chartered commercial bank, merges into EverBank, N.A., which keeps a national charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Beardall called the pairing an elegant fit and said WaFd’s deposits are the piece EverBank’s online bank needs. That is the trade in plain language. A 1917 Seattle franchise supplies branches and core deposits. A Jacksonville digital bank supplies the name, the charter, the CEO job and the majority of the equity.

This opportunity to partner with EverBank is an elegant fit, and it allows us to carry forward the ethos of WaFd and deliver improved returns for our shareholders. First, our core deposits supplement EverBank’s direct consumer online bank.

Brent Beardall, CEO and vice chairman, WaFd Inc., joint announcement

Seibly, in the same release, said the two banks are stronger together and that the deal opens nationwide growth. In an interview around the announcement he put the scale case more bluntly: “You’ve got to be bigger to be able to survive.” A lot of banks, he said, are staring down the same thing.

A Reverse Merger With a 7-6 Board Split

EverBank brings about $47 billion of assets and a $3.9 billion valuation. WaFd brings about $28 billion of assets and a market value of about $2.7 billion. Add those books and the companies land at about $75 billion, which they put inside the top 50 U.S. banks by assets.

HOW THE TWO BANKS COMPARE

Each board, bank and holding company, will have 13 members. Legacy EverBank names seven seats and legacy WaFd names six, including Seibly and Beardall. Robert Radway, EverBank Financial Corp’s chairman, chairs both boards. The 7-6 split matches the 59.2% equity the EverBank side keeps.

The companies say WaFd holders would see about 29% earnings-per-share accretion in 2027, with tangible book value dilution earned back in under two years. After cost synergies, they target a return on tangible common equity of about 15%. The deal is meant to be tax-free for common shareholders of both firms.

Private Equity Gets Nasdaq Without an IPO

EverBank has been around this block before. It was a public company, then TIAA owned it, then a sponsor group bought it and restored the EverBank name. On Aug. 1, 2023, TIAA sold TIAA Bank to private investors and kept a non-controlling stake plus a board seat. Terms of that sale were not disclosed.

The buyers were funds managed by Stone Point Capital, Warburg Pincus, Reverence Capital Partners, Sixth Street and Bayview Asset Management. Seibly, who had run regional banking at Union Bank through its 2022 sale to U.S. Bank, became CEO. Headquarters stayed in Jacksonville.

Those firms had been looking at a sale or an IPO. The WaFd deal is a third path. They do not have to roadshow a new listing. They merge into a company that has been on Nasdaq since November 1982, keep control, and let the ticker change do the branding work.

HOW EVERBANK GOT TO THIS DEAL

1. 1917: WaFd’s banking line starts; the holding company later lists in November 1982.
2. August 1, 2023: TIAA completes the sale to the sponsor group; the bank returns to the EverBank name and an OCC charter.
3. 2025: EverBank adds California financial centers, later cited by Beardall as 28 locations in that state.
4. September 7, 2026: The companies sign the reverse merger and set an early 2027 close.

J.P. Morgan and Piper Sandler advised EverBank Financial Corp, with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as legal counsel. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods advised WaFd, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as legal counsel. WaFd set an investor call for 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Sept. 8, 2026, and posted slides on its investor-relations site.

Core Deposits From Nine Western States

WaFd is the second-largest bank headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, per its own investor materials, and it still files from Seattle. Its July 16, 2026 earnings release counted 210 branches in nine western states. EverBank runs mostly as a digital bank, with centers in California, Florida and New York and a long history of gathering deposits online.

The first question people asked after the headline landed was which brand survives. The papers answer that. The next question is what the Western branch net is for. Beardall named the mix in three parts, and the release adds a fourth in wealth.

WHAT EACH SIDE IS SUPPOSED TO BRING

• WaFd deposits: Commercial client balances are meant to backstop EverBank’s direct-to-consumer online book and cut reliance on wholesale funding.
• WaFd lending: Commercial real estate skill is meant to sit beside EverBank’s commercial and industrial, fund-finance, SBA and premium-finance channels.
• EverBank in California: Twenty-eight financial centers are meant to give WaFd scale in a state where it already wants more density.
• Wealth fees: EverBank’s affluent clients are meant to feed WaFd’s registered-investment-advisor platform.

Both banks have been shifting away from residential and consumer lending toward commercial work. EverBank has added commercial real estate bridge loans, life-insurance premium finance, SBA lending and fund finance since 2023. WaFd has used its Western community ties to grow business banking, SBA and commercial real estate. The combined network is described as more than 250 financial centers.

A digital deposit base bolted onto 210 branches is a different bank than either firm runs now. Online rates and a Western branch culture do not automatically share a cost base, a credit box or a customer file. That integration, not the ticker change, is the work after close.

What WaFd Shareholders Are Being Asked to Approve

WaFd holders are being asked to vote for a deal that dilutes them to 40.8% of a larger company, strips the WaFd name and hands the CEO title to Seibly. The consideration is stock, not cash, so they stay in the equity. The companies’ pitch is the 29% 2027 earnings-per-share lift, the sub-two-year tangible book earn-back and the 15% return on tangible common equity after synergies.

They also keep Beardall as president and six of 13 board seats. That is a real voice, not control. The EverBank investor group can outvote them on the board and in the cap table. TIAA, which kept a stake in 2023, remains in that majority block.

Closing is aimed at early 2027 and needs WaFd shareholder approval, bank-regulator approval and other customary conditions. EverBank’s private owners do not need a public vote of their own. The listed company’s holders are the ones who must bless the rename.

Jacksonville Holds the OCC Charter

EverBank’s main office is EverBank Plaza at 301 West Bay Street in downtown Jacksonville, a 30-story tower that has been the bank’s base through the TIAA years and the sponsor years. The 2023 sale statement said headquarters and the main base of operations remain there. Because the surviving bank is EverBank, N.A., the national charter stays with that Florida name.

WaFd Inc. is still described as a Seattle-headquartered holding company in the announcement. After close that legal entity is the listed parent, only it will be called EverBank Financial Corp. The dual map is the deal: a Nasdaq filer with Pacific Northwest roots, a national bank run under the Jacksonville charter and brand.

EverBank posted the combination on its own account the evening of the announcement, using Seibly’s “stronger together” line and pointing readers to the joint release.

We are pleased to announce that EverBank is entering a strategic merger with @WAFDbank combining the momentum, experience and capabilities of two growth-focused, performance-driven banks. Our two banks are stronger together.

Learn more: https://t.co/Kk8io7hkzv pic.twitter.com/Miqe2fBg1s

— EverBank (@EverBank) September 7, 2026

Seibly’s path into the chair is regional-bank work, not sponsor-only work. He ran Union Bank’s regional franchise into the U.S. Bank deal, and earlier jobs included Umpqua Bank, Sterling Financial, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Beardall stays in the number-two seat after years as WaFd’s CEO and vice chairman.

The Deal Still Needs Regulators and a Vote

The announcement is a signed merger agreement, not a closed bank. Early 2027 is a target. Bank combinations of this size still go through federal and state review, and WaFd’s public holders still have to vote. Cost-synergy dollars were not put in the release, only the 15% return target after those savings are realized.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Signed date: The companies announced a definitive agreement on Sept. 7, 2026.
• Close window: They expect to finish in early 2027 if approvals arrive.
• Vote: WaFd Inc. shareholders must approve; EverBank’s private owners already agreed.
• Tax treatment: The deal is presented as tax-free for both companies’ common shareholders.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Synergy cash: No dollar figure for cost saves was in the joint statement.
• Jobs and branches: No closure map or headcount plan was published with the deal.
• Holding-company city: The surviving bank is EverBank, N.A.; the listed parent’s post-close headquarters city was not restated as a single new address.

If the vote and the agencies clear the file, Nasdaq will list EVBK and the WAFD name will come off the tape. Until then WaFd still reports as WaFd, EverBank still reports as a private bank, and the 210 Western branches still sit under a Washington state charter that the agreement says will end at close.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a proposed bank merger and is for information only. It is not investment advice, a solicitation to buy or sell any security, or a recommendation on how WaFd shareholders should vote. Readers who own or may trade WAFD, the planned EVBK shares, or related securities should consult a licensed financial adviser or securities attorney about their own position before acting. Deal terms, ownership percentages, earnings estimates and closing timing come from company statements as of Sept. 7, 2026 and can change with later filings, votes or regulatory conditions.