Bank Mergers, Acquisitions Likely to Stay Sluggish into 2013

The pace of bank mergers and acquisitions may remain slow next year, extending a gradual decline in the number of banks based in South Florida.

Bank consolidation this year “was not as active as everyone had thought it might be, a little quiet,” said Ivan Garces, a principal in the Miami office of accounting firm Kaufman Rossin and a specialist in forensic accounting and regulatory compliance.

But “some of the smaller banks and even the mid-sized banks are going to have to start combining because of the regulatory pressures on them,” Garces said, citing pending increases in compliance costs and capital requirements under the Dodd-Frank Act.


Ivan Garces, CPA, is a Chief Risk Officer, Risk Advisory Services Practice Leader at Kaufman Rossin, one of the Top 100 CPA and advisory firms in the U.S.