Why the recent wave of regional bank mergers is far from over — and you could profit from it
Facing competition from megabanks and financial technology players, regional banks and midsize lenders find themselves in a mood to mingle in 2021.
S&P Global Market Intelligence now projects $63.3 billion in bank mergers in 2021, up from $27.8 billion in 2020 and $55 billion in 2019, according to figures released Thursday. The $63.3 billion figure represents the largest total since the Global Financial Crisis. In 2022, S&P expects at least $60 billion in M&A bank activity.
If you’re lucky enough to own individual shares of a bank being bought, you’ll likely get a boost in share price, since acquirers typically offer a premium price to shareholders of a target company.
But even some exposure to regional banks and financial stocks have paid off for investors this year. The Financial Select SPDR ETF XLF,
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On the larger side of M&A, you’ll likely see more deals in the vein of Citizens Financial Group’s CFG,
“It has been accelerated by the pandemic, and a desire for a bank branch in your pocket on an iPhone,” Lyons told MarketWatch. “A lot of customers haven’t walked into a bank branch for years. Regional banks are in many cases seeking economies of scale to invest in technology.”
While larger deals between publicly traded banks continue to drive M&A, smaller players are also taking part among the roughly 5,000 banks in the U.S. including small community banks.
“There’s tons of M&A that’s beneath the radar,” Lyons said.
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Examples of acquirers in this corner of the market include Investar Holding Corp ISTR,
Seacoast Banking Corp. SBCF,
Fintech on the payments side from players such as Venmo, Stripe, Square, and PayPal are less regulated and they’re taking business away from banks. Non-bank lenders such as Rocket Mortgage are drawing mortgage business away as well.
“I’d be surprised if there’s not in the next year or to at least two or three significant deals in the regional bank space, including the U.S. bank subsidiaries of foreign banks from Canada, Japan and Europe,” Lyons said.
However, tie-ups between megabanks such as J.P. Morgan Chase JPM,
Even apart from the antitrust rules, it would hard for a large bank merger to take place between globally systemically important banks (GSIBs). The U.S. Federal Reserve would require an economic analysis of risks as spelled out in Dodd Frank – a difficult hurdle to clear, said Ted Hassi, a partner at Debevoise focused on antitrust issues.
However, larger regional bank tie-ups remain in the table.
“I would not tell a big bank, that you can’t get a deal done,” Hassi said. “You have to approach it with care. Any big merger will be met with some skepticism and a lot of the blocking and tackling will be necessary to get the deals done.”
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Such talk puts the spotlight for potential deals on S&P components such as Fifth Third Bancorp FITB,
“Banks are feeling greater pressure to merge due to the challenging earnings environment and dramatic changes in customer behavior during the pandemic,” said Nathan Stovall, principal analyst at S&P, in a statement. “More banks could pursue to sales as they see some of their strong peers decide to partner with other institutions.
S&P Global Market Intelligence expects 229 deals to take place in 2021, with 135 M&A deals surfacing in the second half of 2021 and 70 deals in the fourth quarter alone. Regional banks will continue to comprise a larger portion of sellers compared to prior years.
