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

PREFACE

As long as I keep seeing people keep getting up and going to work every day, I will keep believing in the possibility of economic growth.

—David Ciccone¹

In the spring of 2011, when the journey of writing this tome began, the financial services industry was recovering from trauma. Following a meltdown in mortgage finance, Congress had passed a major financial reform bill, and bankers were facing the uncertainty of hundreds of rule makings. The trust of bankers in customers, and the trust of customers in bankers, had been shaken. Furthermore, many tried-and-true economic paradigms, such as the assumption that low interest rates bring economic growth, seemed to be broken. Yet one fact remained true, and it carried the authors of this book ...