$41 Billion 156-year-old Bank Merger Reveals Shift In Consumer Behavior

A potential bank merger in the EU reveals a lot about consumer banking behaviors.

Italian bank Unicredit made a takeover bid on March 16 for Germany’s Commerzbank, as consumer trends have led to a consolidation of the banking sector.

Timeline of the Commerzbank and Unicredit deal

• September 2024: Unicredit invests in Commerzbank and approaches the bank about merger talks, according to Reuters.
• March 14, 2025: The European Central Bank authorizes Unicredit to increase its stake in Commerzbank to 29.9%. Unicredit begins to increase its shares in the coming months, Bloomberg reports.
• March 15, 2026: Unicredit makes a takeover bid of $40.5 billion for Commezbank, as the company increased its stake in the firm to over 30%. Under German law, this triggers a mandatory takeover offer.
• March 16, 2026: Commerzbank rejects the takeover bid, as it does not include a formal proposal and is a low-ball offer.
• March 22, 2026: Reuters reports that Unicredit is open to sweetening the deal, as talks between the two continue.

These bank mergers aren’t only happening across the pond. Since the start of 2026, there have been 25 bank deals in the U.S., according to S&P Global.

Many of those are regional banks, of which there are thousands in the U.S. Community banks have long been a core part of the American economy, with small businesses looking for loans

But the way the world banks has changed significantly in the last twenty years.

Changing consumer habits

Nearly all Americans have a cellphone, with nine-in-ten owning a smartphone, compared to 35% in 2011, according to the Pew Research Center. And more clients are conducting their banking through apps or online, a survey from the American Bankers Association found.

Phone use could be one reason banks are merging and closing down branches. Just 9% of customers prefer to visit a brick-and-mortar branch, compared to 54% of customers who would rather use an app to do their banking.

A change in technology and how consumers conduct business has made it more expensive and complex for banks to stay in business, David Becker, chairman and CEO at First Internet Bank told TheStreet.

The rise of digital banks and fintechs has also increased competition for traditional banks, he said.

"For many community banks, that combination can create significant challenges. You either need enough scale to spread those costs efficiently, or you need a very focused niche that supports them," Becker said. "That’s why consolidation is happening."

Smaller banks might consider combining to save on the costs of implementing new technology, allowing them to complete with larger firms, Jonathan Lazarow, co-founding partner Ambrose Lazarow law firm, told TheStreet.

“Bankers are not known for their adoption of new technology and the costs for implementing technology can be quite high,” he said.

What an increase in bank mergers means for consumers

So do more bank mergers mean more branch closures? It depends, said David Danielson, managing director at accounting and advisory firm Wolf & Company.

Closures are more likely to be felt in rural areas where a merger involves banks serving the same community, he told TheStreet.

There’s also a generational difference, with older customers more likely to be affected by branch closures.

The number of bank branches has fallen substantially in recent years, with hundreds closed in 2025.

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But Raul Chandrana, EY Parthenon's banking and capital markets leader, doesn’t see branches completely disappearing. Instead, they are likely to be reimagined as holistic financial centres, a place where clients can get more information about wealth growth and asset management, he told TheStreet.

“Branches have been and will always be a very important aspect of consumer banking,” he said.

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