Summary
EverBank and WaFd have agreed to a $3.9 billion merger that would create a roughly $75 billion banking institution. Both banks have been shifting away from traditional residential and consumer lending toward commercial and specialty finance, although the combined company would retain significant exposure to mortgage finance, multifamily and commercial real estate.
EverBank and WaFd are combining in a $3.9 billion transaction that will create a roughly $75 billion banking company — but for the housing industry, the more revealing part of the deal may be what both banks have been moving away from.
The companies announced Monday that EverBank Financial Corp will merge into WaFd Inc. under a definitive agreement signed Sept. 6. WaFd will technically survive the holding-company merger, but the resulting company will take the EverBank Financial Corp name and trade on Nasdaq under the ticker EVBK.
The structure and merger agreement were detailed Tuesday in WaFd’s Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Immediately after that transaction, WaFd Bank will merge into EverBank, N.A., with EverBank’s national bank charter surviving.
The companies expect the transaction to close in early 2027, subject to regulatory approval, approval by WaFd shareholders and other customary closing conditions, according to the joint merger announcement from EverBank and WaFd.
Until then, they remain separate institutions.
A $75 billion bank with national reach
The combination brings together two very different banking footprints.
As of June 30, EverBank reported $46.7 billion in assets and $37.7 billion in deposits, while WaFd had $27.6 billion in assets and $21 billion in deposits.
EverBank operates a predominantly digital national banking model supplemented by a network of financial centers across California, Florida and New York.
WaFd brings more than 200 branches across Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.
Together, the companies expect to operate more than 250 financial centers alongside EverBank’s national digital platform.
The banks have created a dedicated merger information page outlining their respective footprints and what customers can expect before the transaction closes.
EverBank CEO Greg Seibly is expected to become CEO of the combined company. WaFd CEO Brent Beardall will serve as president.
Robert Radway, EverBank’s current chairman, is slated to chair the combined organization. Its 13-member board will include seven directors representing legacy EverBank and six representing WaFd.
Existing EverBank investors will collectively own approximately 59.2% of the combined company, while WaFd shareholders will own about 40.8%.
Both banks have been moving away from residential lending
That is where the transaction becomes particularly interesting for the mortgage industry.
In their own joint investor presentation filed with the SEC, EverBank and WaFd explicitly describe a shared strategic transition toward commercial banking and away from residential and consumer lending.
EverBank’s transformation has been especially pronounced.
The bank’s presentation says management has allowed mortgage assets to run off as part of a broader shift toward higher-yielding commercial lending. It also identifies the exit from mortgage banking among the non-strategic businesses eliminated as EverBank transformed itself from its thrift roots into what management now describes as a commercial bank.
Since 2023, EverBank’s loan portfolio has grown from roughly $26 billion to $37 billion while management has added nine lending verticals.
Those businesses include fund finance, corporate debt finance, lender finance, equipment lending, commercial real estate bridge lending and other specialty commercial products.
WaFd has been moving in a similar direction, using its Western branch network to expand business banking, SBA lending, commercial lending and commercial real estate.
The companies explicitly cited those parallel strategies in the official transaction announcement, saying both have accelerated their transition away from residential and consumer lending.
That is a notable strategic signal at a time when elevated mortgage rates, weak transaction volume and compressed margins continue to challenge traditional housing finance.
Mortgage finance isn’t disappearing
The shift away from traditional residential lending does not mean the combined company is leaving housing finance.
Far from it.
EverBank has built a substantial business financing other financial institutions, including mortgage companies.
Its non-depository financial institution portfolio totals approximately $15.9 billion, according to the merger investor presentation.
About 23% of that portfolio is categorized as structured mortgage finance.
That business includes traditional mortgage warehouse facilities and financing secured by mortgage servicing rights. EverBank says roughly 75% of the structured mortgage business consists of warehouse facilities and approximately 25% is MSR financing.
In other words, EverBank has been reducing its exposure to originating residential mortgages directly while maintaining a significant business providing capital to companies that do.
“EverBank is not necessarily retreating from the economics surrounding mortgages. It is changing where it participates in the mortgage-finance chain.”
That distinction matters.
The bank is not necessarily retreating from the economics surrounding mortgages. It is changing where it participates in the mortgage-finance chain.
The combined company will also have substantial real estate exposure
Commercial real estate will remain another major component of the combined balance sheet.
EverBank and WaFd each hold approximately $8 billion in commercial real estate loans, according to their investor presentation, creating a combined portfolio of roughly $17 billion after adjustments and rounding.
The portfolio includes multifamily, retail, warehouse and industrial, office and other property types.
The companies say the merger will also reduce WaFd’s commercial real estate concentration relative to regulatory capital by placing its portfolio inside a larger, more diversified balance sheet.
EverBank, meanwhile, launched a new bridge commercial real estate lending group during the first quarter of 2026 focused on sponsor-backed senior financing for value-add and repositioning projects.
The combined institution therefore won’t be moving away from real estate so much as changing the composition of its exposure — away from some traditional consumer mortgage activities and toward commercial real estate, multifamily and specialty finance.
Scale is a major part of the equation
The economics of the merger are substantial.
Management expects approximately $135 million in annual pre-tax cost savings, representing about 11% of the companies’ combined noninterest expenses.
The savings are expected to be roughly 40% realized during 2027 and fully phased in by the second half of 2028, according to the SEC-filed investor presentation.
The companies estimate approximately $280 million in one-time merger costs.
For existing WaFd shareholders, management projects approximately 29% earnings-per-share accretion in 2027 and an earn-back period of less than two years for tangible book value dilution.
The combined bank is targeting a return on tangible common equity of approximately 15% after the expected synergies are fully realized.
Those are management projections rather than guaranteed outcomes, and they depend on successful regulatory approval, integration and realization of planned savings.
Still, the numbers illustrate one of the central motivations behind the transaction: scale.
EverBank’s private-equity owners become public shareholders
The deal also completes another stage in EverBank’s unusual ownership journey.
TIAA sold the bank in 2023 to private investors, including funds managed by Stone Point Capital, Warburg Pincus, Reverence Capital Partners, Sixth Street and Bayview Asset Management. TIAA retained an ownership interest.
Those investors, together with TIAA, will collectively hold approximately 59.2% of the combined public company when the transaction closes.
WaFd, meanwhile, has traded publicly since 1982 and traces its banking roots to 1917.
The transaction effectively gives EverBank’s investors a path into a publicly traded institution while combining EverBank’s national digital deposit operation and specialty-commercial lending businesses with WaFd’s extensive Western branch network.
What the deal says about housing finance
The merger is another reminder that the financial institutions surrounding housing are adapting to a market that looks very different from the refinance boom earlier this decade.
Traditional mortgage origination remains intensely rate-sensitive. When transaction volumes collapse, lenders carry substantial infrastructure and personnel costs against fewer loans.
Commercial and specialty finance can offer banks different yields, fee opportunities and borrower relationships.
EverBank’s strategy illustrates one possible response.
Rather than depending heavily on originating mortgages itself, the bank has increasingly positioned itself elsewhere in the capital structure — financing mortgage companies, servicing assets, commercial borrowers and real estate investors while using a national digital deposit base to fund those activities.
WaFd brings a different piece of the puzzle: a large physical banking network and established commercial real estate and business-banking operations throughout the West.
If regulators and WaFd shareholders approve the transaction, those strategies will soon sit under one roughly $75 billion institution.
The headline is a $3.9 billion bank merger.
For housing finance, the more consequential story may be how the bank being created intends to make its money.
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