Roughly 98.6% of voting investors supported a tie-up with fellow Black-owned Optus Bank despite a series of counterproposals. The deal is on track for a fourth-quarter close, M&F said.

Shareholders of Black-owned M&F Bancorp last week overwhelmingly supported a proposed $105 million merger with fellow Black-owned Optus Bank.

The vote marks a blow to Triad Business Bank, which submitted four counterproposals to Durham, North Carolina-based M&F under the guise of persuading the lender to stay in the Tar Heel State. The tie-up with Columbia, South Carolina-based Optus would send decision-making across state lines and leave North Carolina without a Black-owned bank headquarters, Triad argued.

Roughly 98.6% of M&F’s voting shareholders, however, chose to link up with Optus, M&F said Nov. 4.

“Today’s vote reflects our shareholders’ confidence that this combination is the best outcome for M&F, and our Board thanks them for their careful consideration throughout this process,” James A. Stewart, chair of M&F and its holding company, said in a statement.

James Sills III, M&F’s CEO, called the vote “an important milestone,” and added that the pending merger would position the combined bank “to expand access to capital and economic opportunity across the Carolinas.”

The move would create the nation’s largest Black-owned bank – combining $503.5 million-asset M&F with $764 million-asset Optus. (New Orleans-based Liberty Bank & Trust, at $1.1 billion in assets as of June 30, now ranks as the U.S.’s biggest Black-owned bank, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.)

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