From the hallways of this year’s Acquire or Be Acquired, some truths came through loud and clear.
GonzoBankers, checking in from the other side of Bank Director’s annual Acquire or Be Acquired conference, the industry’s closest thing to Coachella, minus the flower crowns and with more balance sheets.
Once again, leaders from across our great industry huddled together in the Arizona desert. They came to compare notes, swap stories, and quietly size each other up. Everyone is still protecting their franchise (and franchise value). Everyone is still hunting for advantages to distinguish their business. And everyone knows the margin for error is getting thinner by the day.
Across two and a half days, a pattern emerged to me and my Cornerstone colleagues in attendance. “Grow or Go” is lazy thinking. Growth looks very different depending on how your institution defines itself.
Is your institution an acquirer? A potential niche winner? A BaaS platform? Or considering an exit?
Growth is no longer about aspiration as much as it is about alignment. Banks that lack alignment in terms of capital allocation strategies, technology investments, and team structures are living a dangerous life.
What follows is our annual Gonzo field guide for those who missed the trip and/or want the unfiltered version of the good, the bad, and the memorable.
The best performing banks are not the biggest, but they sure feel like the most disciplined. These are the banks making hard choices about where their capital goes and even harder choices about where it does not.
We made note of the banks that said no. No to marginal credits. No to unprofitable digital experiments. No to vanity markets that looked good on a map but not on a P&L. Given the merger integration work we do, we left feeling like those banks saying no are well positioned to be consolidators rather than targets for acquisition.
Throughout AOBA, we noted how growth has become a capital allocation game, not an asset accumulation game. Winning banks know which portfolios deserve investments, which customer segments no longer fit, and which lines of business need to shrink or even disappear.
Mendon Venture Partner’s Anton Schutz said it best: optionality is the real prize. Think of a balance sheet flexible enough to pivot between organic growth, buybacks, partnerships, or M&A as conditions change.
During the conference, Fifth Third Bank and Comerica Bank hit a milestone worth noting. Their $10.9 billion merger cleared regulatory approval on February 1, officially creating a single institution operating across 17 of the 20 fastest growing-growing large markets.
From announcement to close? Just 99 days.
That’s remarkable when you consider how far the industry has come. Back in 2022, the average bank merger took 198 days to close; in 2023, it ticked up to 200. Each extra month adds risk: to customers, to talent, and to reputation. By contrast, 2025 saw the average time compress to just 129 days, the lowest in years.
Speed has clearly become a competitive advantage. As integration playbooks improve and regulators grow more predictable, “chemistry” between banks still takes work… but not nearly as much time as it recently did.
We wrote about the deal in a recent “Build or Buy” GonzoBanker. Interested? Take a look
With apologies to Brandon Flowers and the Killers, who brought the 🔥to the Concert in the Coliseum at the WM Phoenix Open on Saturday night, we’re borrowing this banger of a track to let readers know that, per KBW’s research team, 130 banks control nearly 84% of the U.S. banking industry’s deposits.
We’re happy to report that Return on Technology is now discussed alongside Return on Equity. We spent time with board members who want to know what is paying off and what is quietly burning capital. Kind of like the smell some people reported to us late Monday morning.
Strong performers, like Metropolitan Commercial, embody three tests we feel need to line up with major initiatives. Clear ownership. Quantifiable outcomes. And a kill switch if the value does not show up.
Technology spend correlates more strongly with revenue growth than shareholder returns, making operating leverage essential. Big time thanks to the bank’s CEO, Mark DeFazio, for sharing his time and insight with our partner, Brad Smith, as the two discussed “Technology’s Impact on Shareholder Value” on Monday. As Brad put it, the question for CEOs and CFOs isn’t: How much should we spend on technology. It’s: How should technology compete for capital inside the bank? And Mark subsequently showed how his bank actively manages technology to truly drive value creation
The phrase “A.I.” itself means very little now, apart from riling up our Chief Research Officer, Ron Shevlin, on LinkedIn. What matters is where it is embedded and what it has delivered so far. Fraud reduction. Faster underwriting. Lower operating costs. Better customer experiences.
Out here, we took note of the smart banks, and bankers, talking about separating foundational work from shiny objects.
Now, data, APIs, and infrastructure do not make for exciting demos (sorry, but it’s true), but they are what unlock speed and scale later. In our latest What’s Going On In Banking report that Ron authored and published just before AOBA, we found that tech credibility comes from results, not optimism. If you cannot measure it, you should not keep funding it.
If you haven’t read what Ron shares, let me tempt you by telling you he finds a way to bring Four Non Blonds and the Wizard of Oz into his first page of this year’s annual project… while dropping insights like this chart throughout.
With so many banks still living with a patchwork of cores, point solutions, and manual workarounds, we heard a constant drum beat to turn a bank’s tech roadmap into a living discipline. Not a project list. A real roadmap.
Back-of-the-napkin, this means asking:
Where are we today?
Where must we be in three years?
What are the ten to fifteen moves that actually connect those dots?
A strong roadmap reflects outside forces, not just internal wish lists. During some of the FinXTech sessions, we saw how this approach ties to A.I. in terms of fraud, real-time payments, data privacy, and vendor risk.
We admit: Some of our favorite banks run their roadmap reviews on a quarterly cadence. They review value and update risks. Every 90 days, some things get accelerated, slowed, or even stopped. Because they know if they aren’t shaping their roadmap, their roadmap (and their vendors) will shape it for them.
With so many visuals appealing to those of us who like a good slide deck, we debated which would be the one slide to rule them all. Taking the cake this year, Tom Michaud and his team at KBW for showing how deregulation has allowed and encouraged banks to go on the offensive
Inspired by the ever-popular pop-up coffee stand stationed just outside the main conference room, a few of our favorite one-liners from the halls of the JW Marriott:
“Be curious but also challenging. By being challenging, you find out where the perceived opportunities are.” - Steve Steinour, Huntington.
“We do common things uncommonly well” - Mike Daniels, Nicolet National Bank.
“You can’t read the label from inside the bottle” - per Bill Cable of Peoples Bank, when my partner, Eric Weikart, asked what he likes most about AOBA speaking to the value of insights from his time at the conference.
“Free thought exercise: Submit your checking account webpage and two competitors’ checking account webpages to ChatGPT and ask it which one it would choose.” - Derik Sutton, Autobooks
“We don’t have work-life separation anymore so, if you want to grow business accounts at a bank, better to take care of personal/consumer and even wealth management accounts well too. And be sure your bank is showing up in A.I. search results.” -Laura Broderick, Abrigo
“Under 10, dead in 10” - Don Mallory, Adrenaline (sharing a line he’d heard on one of my LinkedIn posts)
“Involve your employees because nothing is going to mess with your efficiency more than employee turnover.” - Mark DeFazio, Metropolitan Commercial Bank.
“Organic revenue growth at TotalWine was likely juiced by some AOBA attendees.” – identity withheld to protect the innocent
Kudos to my fintech-focused colleague, Sam Kilmer, for creating the swankiest swag category years ago. We take a playful spin on that tradition by giving thanks to some of the swaggiest tchotchkes to make an appearance in the desert this year, with a nod to the Winter Olympics:
Bronze medal: Baker Tilly and their laser-etched AirTag tags; ideal for those road warriors looking for a touch of class with their carry-ons.
Silver medal: “First the whiskey, Mr./Ms. Banker, then read our brochure.” White Clay brings its own blend to the dance. Well played Mac Thompson and team.
Gold medal: Q2 showing that “all you need is love” with a double decker lip balm /breath mints combo mini jar in the Arizona desert. Q2 reseller/partner Autobooks’ Derik Sutton told Sam: “I roll 3 deep with these.” If it’s good enough for Derik, it’s good enough for us!
Given all the conversations, and presentations, it struck us that four traits will define high performing, “smarter banks” in ‘26:
Digitally proficient, where straight through processing is the default, and manual work, the exception.
Analytics driven since pricing, risk, and relationship management rely on data, not folklore.
Intentionally focused, with crystal clear choices about customers, industries, and geographies.
Disciplined operators that value repeatable playbooks over one-off heroics (think banks with consistent approaches to credit, change, integration, and performance).
So, before your next board meeting, here are three questions worth asking: which of these is your strength? Which is your blind spot? And, most importantly, why?
🌵🏜️☀️
As we prepare to unpack our suitcases from the trip to Arizona, we thank our friends at Bank Director for yet another exceptional Acquire or Be Acquired at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge. It is always a treat to explore various growth options alongside some 2,000 registered attendees… and who knows how many else were lurking on the boundaries!
Al Dominick is a partner at Cornerstone Advisors. Tune in to his Plugged In podcast with Steve Williams and follow him on LinkedIn.