Banks M&As: Where can they go wrong

The recent financial market ¿turmoil¿ has produced significant structural changes, and created historic opportunities for banking institutions to launch mergers with, and acquisitions of, competitors. Nevertheless, numerous institutions fail to anticipate strategic aspects that could affect the real value of such transactions. This is a well established fact, but the reasons for it are less clear. This paper aims to assist banking professionals and institutions to improve the quality of their M&As, especially in an era where mistakes could have catastrophic effects on a bank¿s balance sheet (B/S) and reputation. To address some of the strategic challenges, we shall review some practical measures that executives could put into practice to maximise and unlock synergies from M&As, and establish possible areas where mergers can go wrong. Additionally, the study explores the pre/post-merger financial performance of key M&As in the Greek banking sector, whilst reviewing prospects for the Cypriot banking sector. This book contributes to the financial and strategic management literature by analysing key reasons whereby banks¿ M&As (both cross-border and in-border) can go wrong.