The Art of Bank M&A: Buying, Selling, Merging, and Investing in Regulated Depository Institutions in the New Environment

FOREWORD

A New World for Bank Mergers

By Heath P. Tarbert*

The first two decades of the twenty-first century represent a critical juncture in the history of the U.S. banking sector. Beginning in 1999, an unprecedented expansion into nonbanking activities combined with the emergence of new Internet-based technologies, a vibrant mortgage market, and financial innovations from Wall Street to Main Street to fuel the organic growth of banks, as well as an abundance of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, for nearly a decade. Then came the global financial crisis. The entire U.S. banking industry plunged into an abyss of chaos not witnessed since the throes of the Great Depression. Bankruptcy or bailout became the limited menu of options offered ...