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Bigger banks are buying. Regulatory approvals are taking less time. More banks are being auctioned.
Those might seem like pre-recession attributes of bank M&A, but all resurfaced this summer.
So far, 2014 could be considered a transitional year in M&A. Some industry observers contend that this year will be looked back upon as an inflection point, when M&A began to break away from the effects of the financial crisis.
Merger announcements fell 20% from the second quarter and were virtually flat from a year earlier, with 66 deals. Several M&A players said they are not concerned about the linked-quarter decline; 201 deals have been announced so far this year, putting 2014 on pace to outperform the annual totals for 2013 and 2012.
Shifting dynamics are taking place, creating green shoots that portend a market unlike any seen in years. "M&A is seeing a continued slow burn," said John Roddy, senior managing director and global head of the financial institutions group for Macquarie Capital.
"There is more noise in the market, and it is resulting in a slow, but modest, improvement in the number and valuation of deals," Roddy said. "These are signs of us approaching a new normal in 2015."
BIG BANKS INCH BACK IN
Perhaps the biggest highlight of the quarter was BB&T's agreement in early September to buy the $2 billion-asset Bank of Kentucky Financial in Crestview Hills.
The $188 billion-asset BB&T is often viewed as one of the bigger banks most likely to acquire. It managed to make a few deals during the downturn, including...