A deal to merge North Carolina’s only Black-owned bank with a similar bank in South Carolina moved closer to reality this week.
On Wednesday, shareholders of M&F Bancorp, the parent company of Durham-based Mechanics & Farmers Bank, approved a merger agreement with Optus Financial Corp., which is based in Columbia.
If federal regulators approve the deal, the merger would create the nation’s largest Black-owned bank, with about $1.3 billion in assets…