On December 1, 2021, RSI Bancorp, M.H.C., a New Jersey mutual holding company, RSI Bancorp, Inc., a Delaware holding company, and RSI Bank, a New Jersey stock savings bank (collectively “RSI”), entered into a merger agreement with Columbia Bank MHC, a federally chartered mutual holding company, Columbia Financial, Inc., a Delaware holding company, and Columbia Bank, a federally chartered stock savings bank (collectively “Columbia”), pursuant to which the RSI entities will merge with and into the Columbia entities. As part of the merger transaction, Columbia Financial, Inc., the mid-tier holding company of Columbia Bank, will issue additional shares of its common stock to Columbia Bank MHC in an amount equal to the fair value of RSI as determined by an independent appraisal.

RSI Bank, headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, had $620 million in assets at September 30, 2021 and operates from its main office and three branch offices in Middlesex County and Union County, New Jersey.

Columbia Bank, headquartered in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, had $9.2 billion in assets at September 30, 2021 and operates 61 branches.

Luse Gorman is serving as legal counsel to RSI in the transaction. The Luse Gorman team consists of John Gorman, Thomas Hutton and Babette Schwartz.

Luse Gorman has acted as counsel on more than 100 bank M&A transactions during the past five years and more bank M&A transactions than any other law firm in the nation over the past 20 years. To learn more about our mergers and acquisitions practice, please visit our website.