WASHINGTON (Reuters) - PNC Financial Services Group won Justice Department approval to buy National City Corp with some conditions, making it the nation's fifth-largest bank, the department said on Thursday.
PNC had said in October that it would buy Cleveland-based National City for about $4 billion.
PNC said in a government filing in November that its shareholders would vote on the deal on December 23 and that it expected the merger to close by year's end.
As a condition of the merger, PNC will sell 61 National City branch offices in western Pennsylvania with deposits totaling $4.1 billion. Once the merger is complete, PNC will have about $289 billion in assets and $180 billion in deposits.
PNC must also sell about half of the lending National City does in Pittsburgh for business customers and others whose lending needs are about $1 million. Virtually all of that business in Erie County would also be sold.
The merger must also be approved by the Federal Reserve.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Gary Hill)
