There's been a lot of discussion in the financial services media about a potential rebound in bank M&A. Case in point: Bank Director just released a report on the M&A outlook for 2025, which discusses a likely increase in deal activity due to healthier bank balance sheets, geographic expansion, and a need for scale to offset the costs of increasing compliance burdens the survey noted:
"I think the regulatory pendulum is swinging so very far into the weeds that it is going to choke us. It's getting harder and harder to maintain acceptable profitability as a small, family-owned bank in a rural marketplace."
But hang on-Bank Director conducted its survey before the presidential election, and President-elect Donald Trump, as well as the two leading candidates to chair the House Financial Services Committee, Reps. Andy Barr, R-KY, and French Hill, R-AR, have promised to roll back regulatory burdens. Certainly, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and other senior CFPB staffers are likely to be relieved of their duties once the new administration takes the reins.
With that in mind, have the results of the election changed the calculus for bank M&A?
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Rob Blackwell
Chief Content Officer and Head of External Affairs
IntraFi
Arlington, VA
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