American Banker features Emily Steele on the drivers of M&A this year
A new American Banker survey shows one in four financial institutions expect to be involved in an M&A deal in 2025. The drivers range from market share growth to deposit expansion, but according to Savana President Emily Steele, innovation is at the heart of the story.
“I do think banks are innovative, but the challenge with innovation is that the top five banks have deep pockets and are continuously innovating,” Steele told American Banker. “When you go below that, we’ve got lots of banks and lots of credit unions that ultimately cannot compete with the top five that own the majority of the market. There is an opportunity for those to come together to create larger financial institutions that have more power. Bigger companies have bigger budgets, and for credit unions and banks the same thing applies.”
Steele also pointed out that competition is no longer limited to traditional players. With fintechs and nontraditional companies entering financial services, consolidation is increasingly necessary to stay competitive.
“Consolidation is necessary because it is not just about banks and credit unions anymore. It is about any business offering financial services. So I think that aggregation is necessary: one, because of the saturation, but two, to compete.”
But successful M&A requires more than scale. It requires integration. Steele emphasized the role of technology in ensuring mergers deliver on their promise.
“When I think of the acquisitions that are occurring, three technology challenges that come to mind for me are: How do you handle multiple brands? How do you handle multiple tech stacks and multiple cores? And how do you gain efficiency? By bringing companies together and consolidating your operations, and technology can drive that.”
As M&A activity accelerates in 2025, banks that can align operations and technology quickly will be best positioned to turn consolidation into innovation.
Read the full article at American Banker
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