Final thoughts on bank M&A for 2025

Bank M&A activity cooled down in the fourth quarter of 2025. Still 2025 has generated 165 bank M&A transactions year to date. This is the largest number of bank M&A transactions since 2021. Not only that, total deal value, assets sold, deposits sold, and median deal value-to-tangible common equity were also the best since 2021. One of the interesting changes at year end is the seeming reluctance in a number of banks to engage in further M&A activity. This includes Wells Fargo, KeyCorp, PNC, Truist, and Huntington. Finally, we consider whether bank stocks are divorcing from bank fundamentals. This episode reviews a series of articles from the Business Journals (subscription required), Banking Dive, and S&P Global (subscription required).