The past several months have seen a significant surge in strategic bank mergers. Having shored up their balance sheets through well-timed capital raises, conservative capital management and reserves taken during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, many banks and financial institutions have emerged in a position of strength, and are once again looking to strategic M&A to create synergies, drive scale efficiencies to support investment in technology, and generate long-term value for their companies and stakeholders. After a moratorium on deal activity through the middle of 2020, we are now in the middle of a wave of bank consolidation which began with PNC’s $11.6 billion cash acquisition of BBVA’s U.S. banking business announced in November 2020, followed shortly thereafter by Huntington Bancshares’ $22 billion all-stock strategic merger with TCF Financial in December to create a top 10 U.S. regional bank. Merger activity has continued through the early months of 2021 and has shown no signs of abating, with a number of transformative strategic combinations announced over the past few weeks alone, including Independent Bank Corp.’s $1.15 billion all-stock acquisition of Meridian Bancorp, BancorpSouth and Cadence Bancorporation’s $6 billion all-stock merger of equals, and Webster Financial’s $10.3 billion all-stock merger of equals with Sterling Bancorp. These combinations illustrate the increasing importance of scale and accelerating digital and technological investment and the significant synergies and value creation that a well-planned and executed strategic merger can create for shareholders and other constituencies on both sides of a transaction.

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