Banks seeking to offload CRE assets are finding a receptive marketplace while regulators have managed to keep the situation in balance, observers say.

The bank said it would acquire Bank of Idaho for $245.4 million in stock. It marked the 12th bank deal for Glacier over the past decade.

The Florida bank is jumping on the strategy for general corporate purposes and a potential sale of its underwater bond portfolio.

Mutual Federal Bancorp nixed its planned acquisition of Pulaski Savings Bank. It did not disclose a reason for the deal termination.

The Federal Reserve Board on Friday approved UMB Financial's pending $2 billion acquisition of Heartland Financial.

Clearfield-based CNB Financial's planned acquisition of ESSA Bancorp in Stroudsburg would create an $8 billion-asset company with 49 branches and nearly $5 billion of deposits in the Keystone State.

The angry reaction of Bench's customers to its sudden closing was one thing that made it an attractive acquisition target, Employer.com executives say.

Reading Cooperative's combination with Wakefield Cooperative, the third deal involving Boston-area banks announced in the past month, would create a $1.2 billion community bank.

Chris Gorman and four other high-ranking KeyCorp executives have been granted a combined $16.7 million in performance-based equity awards that will vest in two years, as long as the Cleveland-based company meets certain capital requirements and earnings goals.

The Florida company completed its purchase of Independent Bank, increasing its liability sensitivity and jumping to $65 billion in assets.

The unprecedented number of deals came in a year when banks struggled to find merger partners in their markets.

The Honolulu-based utility sold a 90.1% stake in American Savings Bank. The deal valued the lender at $450 million.

The trend of credit unions buying banks is a lightning rod for controversy in the banking industry. Despite this, such mergers are increasingly common.

Community banking highlights in 2024 included strong deposit growth at a Los Angeles-based digital-only bank, continued regulatory scrutiny of banking-as-a-service arrangements, along with a transformational deal in the Old Dominion.

A record 22 credit unions announced plans to acquire banks in 2024, though the year ended on a discordant note as regulatory concerns appear to have derailed a planned CU-bank deal in Georgia.

These banks are expected to draw regulatory scrutiny in the coming year. 

The Seattle-based company's deal with Bank of America comes five weeks after the termination of its planned sale to FirstSun Capital Bancorp in Denver.

Transactions grew larger and more frequent this year. As a result, aggregate value more than tripled from 2023 and topped $15 billion.

This year saw the impact of Donald Trump's return to the White House, the first rate cut from the Federal Reserve in roughly four years and more.

The two companies continue to tick items off their year-end to-do list, which analysts hope will tee up the merger for finalization in early 2025. Regulatory approval remains a major question.