Despite a sluggish start, last year ended up being the busiest year for deals since 2016 in terms of the number of mergers announced. Aggregate deal value was in line with what took place a year earlier, excluding the megamerger of BB&T and SunTrust that closed in December.
While the year featured a number of headline-grabbing combinations, led by BB&T-SunTrust, a slew of mergers between smaller banks took place. Overall premiums were down, largely because of no-premium mergers of equals and the high percentage of small transactions.
A handful of states were responsible for a large percentage of industry consolidation.
Credit unions stepped up efforts to buy banks, drawing even more ire from the banking industry.
Here is a deeper look at the key trends of 2019 bank M&A, which will likely continue in the new year.
Overall, 271 mergers were announced last year, a 5% increase from 2018 and the busiest year since 2015, according to data compiled by Compass Point and S&P Global Market Intelligence.
A lot of that activity occurred in the second half of the year due to a combination of fiscal, market and other factors.
The new tax reform law gave some would-be buyers a reason to delay selling, while a decline in bank stocks forced many bankers to revisit pricing expectations.
The three rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, which began in August, seemed to jolt a number of on-the-fence sellers, creating concerns that margin pressure would further crimp profits. And it took some time for the BB&T-SunTrust megamerger, announced in February, to spur other deals involving large institutions.