2025 is turning out to be a very active year for bank combinations. In less than 7 months, we lost 79 banks to mergers and acquisitions.

The second half of the year looks to be even busier.

On page 5 of this week's Jumbo Rate News, we have listed the largest 50 acquisitions completed to date. Below, we discuss several more large deals that are in the works.

Bank Merger Activity is Heating Up

On Thursday, July 24, 2025 JRN listee 5-Star Essa Bank & Trust, Stroudsburg, PA (28262) (with $2.166 billion in assets) merged into the $6.273 billion asset 5-Star CNB Bank, Clearfield, PA (13876). As a result, we have lost a long-time listee to M&A.

It is far from the first bank merger this year. Between December 31, 2024 and July 19, 2025, 79 banks were lost to M&A. The largest 50 acquisitions can be found on page 5 of this week's issue of Jumbo Rate News..

In addition to these completed transactions, there are many more in the pipeline. The speed of these announcements appears to be accelerating. Some of the more recently announced transactions are quite large as well. They include:

Last month, 5-Star Pinnacle Bank, Nashville, TN (35583) announced plans to merge with  5-Star Synovus Bank, Columbus, GA (873) to form the largest bank in the Peach State.

Pinnacle Bank brings $54 billion and Synovus $60 billion to the table, meaning the combined bank will have well over $100 billion in assets. This makes it the largest bank M&A deal announced this year, although it doesn’t hold a candle to the Capital One—Discover combination that was completed in May.

Just about a month earlier, 5-Star Glacier Bank, Kalispell, MT (30788) announced it will enter the Lone Star State with the acquisition of another 5-Star bank, the $3.150 billion asset Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A., Mount Pleasant, TX (1208).

This comes right on the heels of Glacier’s acquisition of 5-Star Bank of Idaho, Idaho Falls, ID (26403), a $1.3 billion asset bank. You will find this transaction listed on page 5. It was completed at the end of April.

For years Glacier Bank has been a serial acquirer. Its modus operandi is to acquire a bank and keep it operating under its old (familiar) name, “as a division of Glacier Bank”. Guaranty Bank will become Glacier Bank’s 18th such division.

Unlike Glacier, 5-Star Commerce Bank, Kansas City, MO (24998) has not acquired another bank since 2013. In mid-June, Commerce announced it was back in business with a deal to buy 5-Star Finemark NB&T, Fort Myers, FL (58486).

The addition of Finemark’s $4 billion in assets and 13 offices will create a sprawling Commerce Bank with $36 billion in assets and more than 170 branch offices spreading from Arizona and Colorado in the West all the way to South Carolina and Florida in the East.

Another bank entering the Sunshine State is 5-Star Regent B&T, N.A., Tulsa, OK (4160) which has plans to acquire 4-Star DLP Bank, Starke, FL (17734). DLP is a small community bank with $249 million in assets. It will serve to give the $1.7 billion Regent Bank a proverbial toe in the warm Florida sand.

The Lone Star State is another hotbed of M&A activity. In addition to more than a dozen banks already lost this year, there are some big Texas acquisitions pending, including:

5-Star Huntington NB, Columbus, OH (6560), the nation’s 21st largest bank with over $200 billion in assets, has announced plans to acquire the $12.6 billion asset 5-Star Veritex Community Bank, Dallas, TX (57665) to “accelerate Texas growth”. With 34 offices concentrated in the Houston and Dallas areas, this will be a good introduction for Huntington into the Lone Star State. Once completed, Huntington will operate more than 1,200 branch offices in 14 states.

Speaking of the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas, 5-Star Investar Bank, NA, Baton Rouge, LA (58316) is increasing its footprint in Texas with plans to acquire 5-Star First National Bank, Wichita Falls, TX (26543). The $1.4 billion asset First National Bank has eight locations, all in the area north of Dallas-Fort Worth. This will be an entirely new market for Investar, which currently operates through three Texas offices, all near Houston.

Most (21) of Investar Bank’s 30 branches are in its home state of Louisiana, but it has a growing presence in Alabama (6) and now in Texas (3) + (8) from FNB when completed.

5-Star Prosperity Bank, El Campo, Texas (16835) is planning its third Texas  bank acquisition in three years. This latest deal is for 5-Star American Bank, N.A., Corpus Christi, TX (20241), a $2.5 billion asset bank with 18 branch offices in seven Texas counties. The addition will propel Prosperity over the $40 billion asset threshold. Perhaps things really are bigger in Texas, but...

Two BIG cross-state transactions are also brewing on the West Coast. They are:

Columbia Banking System, Tacoma, WA, parent to 5-Star Columbia Bank dba Umpqua Bank, Lake Oswego, OR (17266) has plans to acquire 5-Star Pacific Premier Bank, N.A., Irvine, CA (32172). Once completed, the combined institution will have about $70 billion assets and 373 offices.

5-Star Mechanics Bank, Walnut Creek, CA (1768) will acquire 3-Star Homestreet Bank, Seattle, WA (32489). Homestreet Bank got into a bit of trouble with its commercial real estate (multi-family residential specifically) loans. After selling nearly $1 billion of those loans to Bank of America, the stage was set for a sale.  (A previous sale was cancelled last November, before the cleanup.) When completed, Mechanics Bank will boast more than $24 billion in assets with 174 branches.