The news: OceanFirst Financial and Flushing Financial became a late entry in the 2025 bank merger and acquisition (M&A) wave last week, announcing a merger agreement to create a $23 billion New England bank.

But this merger is peanuts compared with some of the bigger deals struck among US and Canadian banks this year.

Here are the highlights from 2025:

US: Lighter scrutiny of bank mergers under the Trump administration set the stage for three blockbuster bank acquisitions in 2025, including a shakeup of the 10 largest US commercial banks. In the meantime, smaller banks and credit unions have been merging at a rapid clip.

• Fifth Third and Comerica announced a $10.9 billion transaction that will create the ninth-largest US bank, with about $288 billion in assets. Read more >>
• Huntington Bank and Cadence Bank announced a $7.4 billion transaction, creating a top-10 US bank with $276 billion in assets.
• PNC and FirstBank announced a $4.1 billion transaction, growing PNC’s assets by $26.9 billion to reach $575 billion. Read more >>
• BECU and SAFE Credit Union announced a combination that would create the fourth-largest US credit union, with more than $33 billion in assets. Read more >>

Canada: The country’s highly concentrated banking industry makes M&A rare, but this year one bank seized on opportunities to grow its footprint to western Canada and reinforce its presence in Quebec. But the “big five” of TD, RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, and CIBC still reign supreme.

• National Bank of Canada and Canadian Western Bank closed their deal in February, with National Bank acquiring its smaller counterpart. The sixth-largest bank later announced that it would acquire Laurentian Bank’s loans and deposits, including C$4.1 billion ($3.0 billion) in loans that would be added to National Bank’s C$462 billion ($337.2 billion). Read more >>

Read more about the bank M&A trend in our recent report Banking Trends to Watch in 2026.