Assessing the Landscape for Community Bank M&A

With a lighter regulatory touch expected under a new presidential administration, many industry watchers expected an uptick in bank M&A heading into this year. Through March, that had not come to pass.

Recent developments, though, suggest some regulatory tailwinds could support potential dealmaking. In March, the FDIC proposed rescinding its 2024 Statement of Policy on Bank Merger Transactions, saying that the merger review process had “become less transparent and less predictab…