Justice Department Clears Bank Merger

The Justice Department approved the merger of Fleet Financial Group and Shawmut National Corp. on Tuesday after Fleet agreed to sell 64 bank branches to maintain competition in New England banking.

The 64 branches have about $3 billion in deposits, making this the second-largest divestiture in the history of the banking industry, the department said.

The $3.7 billion merger deal was announced last February.

To win the department’s approval, Fleet agreed to sell off 64 of its 850 branches. The branches to be sold have more than $300 million in commercial loans in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.