Dicier credit conditions, recession fears and tougher regulatory scrutiny combined to weaken merger activity in 2022. A push for scale is bound to resume when interest rates level off — at least among smaller banks, analysts say.

The business being sold to Madison Dearborn Partners provides trustee and administrative services to asset managers and retirement plans.

Centralized development programs for new companies provide access to potential clients and investors.

The framework has little immediate impact in the U.S., where banks are broadly prohibited from crypto-related activities, but it establishes a baseline for future regulatory efforts.

A group of shareholders in the Dubuque, -Iowa-based bank, including a former chairman and CEO, have agreed to quit advocating for a sale of the $19.7 billion-asset company

Blair will succeed longtime executive Kessel Stelling as chairperson of the bank's board of directors after joining Synovus in 2016 and moving into the CEO position last April.