National Penn was founded in 1874 as The National Bank of Boyertown. The company went public in 1982, and changed its name to National Penn in 1993. The bank has completed twelve acquisitions since 1990, and terminated one. and the bank had $9.6 billion in assets. In the spring of 2014, National Penn moved its headquarters to downtown Allentown, consolidating their facilities in one location. In August 2015, it was announced National Penn had been acquired by
BB&T, which was expanding its presence in the mid-Atlantic states. National Penn CEO Scott Fainor said the deal was practical because BB&T could offer customers a wider range of products and services, such as deposit, loan and insurance offerings. Additionally, he said, new federal banking compliance rules would have cost National Penn millions of dollars annually. The merger is expected to close by mid-2016. BB&T seeks to achieve cost savings of about 30 percent of National Penn's non-interest expenses, totaling $65 million. As a result, job cuts are expected. ==Charitable efforts==