Flushing Financial merging with Ocean First

The old year ended with a new beginning for Long Island’s banking sector, as a major regional bank announced it is acquiring a Nassau-based financial institution.Flushing Financial, parent of Flushing Savings Bank, said it reached a deal valued at more than half a billion dollars to merge with OceanFirst Financial, parent of Ocean First Bank, creating a financial institution with $23 billion in assets.Uniondale-based Flushing will become part of Red Bank, N.J.-based OceanFirst, the sole re