84% of Banks Have Completed an M&A Deal With an Eye on Modernization

Mergers and acquisitions have long been a reliable way for banks to grow and expand, but now financial institutions, especially community and regional banks still reliant on legacy systems, are looking to M&A as a catalyst for modernization. 👉Read the full eBook

Modernize and reimagine banking after a merger

Banks that don’t seize on the chance to modernize post-M&A potentially risk missing out on unlocking the value secreted inside existing tech stacks, data silos, and newly acquired assets and the opportunity to transform to better serve and appeal to customers. While legacy systems still have a lot of value to offer, a merger or acquisition can turn operational complexity into a platform for innovation, building the infrastructure that will underpin open banking, ensure scalability, and leverage fintech partnerships to position institutions for what comes next. That shift is incredibly important as community and regional banks face competitive headwinds from larger financial institutions and fintechs.

What the research shows 

New findings from Beyond the Deal: How Regional Banks Can Turn Mergers into Modernization, a survey by TechStudio™, an Energize Marketing® company, in partnership with FIS®, reveal that M&A activity is still going strong and some banks are moving fast—84 percent of the executives surveyed have completed a deal and 54 percent expected to do so within the next 12 months.

More than half (55 percent) of executives are driven by the desire to grow, citing garnering more customers as the number one driver for seeking an M&A deal. But nearly as many (54 percent) are using such deals to vanquish redundancies. They understand, though, that not just any deal will mesh with their goals and are doing due diligence to find the right bank—71 percent already have thoroughly assessed potential targets for important synergies.  

"The incumbent, even in the acquiring institution, from a technology perspective, isn’t always the best solution for the combined organization.”— Nicole Pienkos, SVP and Head of Regional Banking, FIS

The findings also show that regional and community banks see AI as means of supercharging smarter, data-driven decisions in real time and create better business and client outcomes. And they are turning to AI to streamline processes and introduce efficiencies. Newly conjoined institutions can more easily add services, processes, and apps that can better serve their communities, something that customers may expect to be a result of a merger or acquisition .

📊 By the Numbers:  Turning Mergers into Modernization

• 84% have completed or attempted a merger or acquisition
  
  
• 71% have already completed a detailed or high-level synergy assessment
  
  
• 55% say expanding the customer base is the top reason for pursuing M&A
  
  
• 54% are using M&A to eliminate redundancies
  
  
• 54% expect to complete an M&A transaction within the next 12 months 
  

 Banks would benefit from extending those efforts beyond core modernization, to unlock the transformative value of broad ecosystem thinking. Ecosystem-focused transformation is not a one-and-done effort or a simple swapping out of technology but rather typically a multi-phase journey that involves clearly defined business goals, a deep understanding of assets, a thorough assessment of technology gaps, and alignment with an astute, experienced partner.

 👉  To explore all findings, download the full Beyond the Deal: How Regional Banks Can Turn Mergers into Modernization ebook — And How Digital-ready Banks Deliver eBook (fielded in April 2025).