Credit Union-Bank Deals Slow Amid Fierce Competition from Bank Buyers

Posted by Alyse Knudsen on July 15, 2026

By Robert Clark and Claire Lawson, S&P Global Market Intelligence

Credit unions have hit the brakes on bank buys after two blockbuster years.

Six months into the year, there have been only four credit union-bank deal announcements, compared to 15 in 2025 and a record 20 in 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. This year is on track to be among the slowest years of the past decade for this type of deal.

While the M&A market is active, credit unions’ acquisitions of banks have slowed as bank buyers take a more aggressive approach, according to Honigman partner Michael Bell. Bank M&A levels have been modest so far this year but remain significantly higher than the credit union-bank M&A volume, reaching 65 deals through May versus 186 in 2025, according to an earlier Market Intelligence analysis.

“I have always explained that CUs lose far more [bid] contests than they win and this remains the case,” Bell wrote in an email to Market Intelligence. “So far in 2026, I have had a slew of CU buyers lose out to bank buyers in very competitive processes.”

There was one credit union-bank deal announcement each month from January through April, and none in May or June. None of the deals announced so far this year sit among the 20 largest deals in the past decade based on target total assets. The largest deal of 2026 is Alabama One CU’s pending purchase of Peoples Independent Bank with $476.6 million in assets.

Despite the slowdown, Bell anticipates more deal announcements this year, saying activity levels are strong.

Longer closure timelines

As deals slowed to a trickle, closure timelines began to stretch out. Of the 19 announced bank acquisitions by credit unions since 2025, 12 remained pending as of June 8. Six of the 19 transactions involved a credit union buyer headquartered in a different state from the target bank.

Since the start of the current Trump administration, traditional bank deals have been closing at a rapid pace. These transactions have taken a median of 132 days to close, with large deals closing even more quickly. In comparison, the median time to close was 187 days in 2024 and 175 days in 2023, according to a Market Intelligence analysis from April.

Meanwhile, credit unions’ purchases of banks generally require more time to close because the approval process involves both bank and credit union regulators. The median time to close was 251 days for such credit union-bank deals announced within the past decade and 252 days for the deals announced since 2025.

As of June 8, Michigan State University FCU’s announced acquisition of American Eagle Bank had been pending 496 days, the longest among the credit union-bank deals announced since 2025. Avenir Financial FCU’s proposed acquisition of Mission Bank was the second-longest pending deal, at 377 days.

Of the seven completed deals on the list, MIDFLORIDA CU’s in-state acquisition of Prime Meridian Holding Co. took the longest time to close, at 313 days. Legacy Community FCU’s acquisition of Cullman, Alabama-based First Community Bank of Cullman closed the quickest, at 197 days.

Deals ran on shorter timelines before the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 20 deals with the shortest closing times announced since 2016, 13 were announced before 2020.

Mid Oregon Credit Union‘s acquisition of High Desert Bank, announced in March 2018, had the shortest time from announcement to completion, at 82 days.

Scrapped deals

Credit union-bank deal terminations hit a five-year high in 2025, with three deals terminated, compared to one in 2024 and two each in 2023 and 2022.

Of the credit union-bank deals terminated since 2016, the median time to termination was 330 days.

Aside from regulatory hurdles, bank industry opposition can also draw out credit union-bank deals. Trade groups have long objected to credit unions’ bank acquisitions, arguing that credit unions’ tax-exempt status creates an uneven playing field.

Orion FCU’s deal to acquire Financial Federal Bank, for one, failed to reach the finish line after coming under fire from a trade association and a state regulator.

When the Tennessee-based institutions announced their deal in 2021, Colin Barrett, president and CEO of the Tennessee Bankers Association, questioned the legality of the transaction and called it a “double loss” for the state. Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions Commissioner Greg Gonzales asked a Tennessee judge to temporarily block the deal, arguing that the credit union’s bank acquisition is prohibited under the Tennessee Banking Act.

The Orion FCU-Financial Federal Bank deal remained pending for 1,289 days before it was terminated. This represented the longest pending time among credit union-bank deals scrapped since 2016.

US Eagle FCU’s acquisition of Southwest Capital Bank was the most recently terminated credit union-bank deal, ending in July 2025 after pending for 342 days.