Banking on Scale: How M&A and Market Shifts Reveal Finance’s Role in Building Resilience

For Finance leaders at banks, credit unions, and asset managers, resilience has become the defining priority of 2026 — and Finance is the function that turns it into reality. Rising credit stress, shifting regulation, and a wave of M&A are reshaping balance sheets across financial services, and the institutions pulling ahead treat resilience as something they design, not something they scramble to recover.

In our Mid-Year Banking Review, we explored how banks were navigating policy shifts and leading with AI. Since then, the story has evolved — and Finance sits squarely at the center of it.

Three forces are reshaping financial institutions right now: mounting credit stress, evolving regulation, and accelerating M&A. In our last outlook, we saw U.S. banks piloting AI and responding to shifting federal policies with tactical agility. Today, those tactical moves have hardened into structural shifts — reshaping balance sheets, capital strategies, and Finance priorities across banks, credit unions, and asset managers alike.

Credit stress remains a top concern across financial institutions, and regional banks feel it most given their exposure to commercial real estate (CRE) and commercial lending. Many remain concentrated in portfolios vulnerable to borrower fraud and deteriorating loan quality. Zions Bancorp’s $50 million charge-off and Western Alliance’s nearly $100 million fraud lawsuit, along with the Tricolor bankruptcy that contributed $170 million in losses at JPMorgan, point to growing strain in commercial and subprime segments — and signal broader stress across mid-market and consumer lending. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon captured the mood bluntly, warning that “when you see one cockroach, there are probably more.” His point: hidden risks can lurk beneath otherwise stable metrics, and investors and executives are watching closely.

Overall asset quality remains favorable, and capital ratios have strengthened, but rising delinquencies and nonperforming loans in certain sectors call for greater vigilance. For Finance leaders at banks, credit unions, and asset managers, that means watching granular portfolio risk analytics — charge-offs, delinquencies, and loan concentrations — closely enough to guide business partners toward smarter moves: loan modifications, tighter credit standards, or proactive restructuring. Those insights should feed directly into financial, operational, and capital planning so the institution can stay agile when conditions shift.

In the U.S., regulatory expectations keep evolving beyond Basel III — with a sharper focus on AI and model governance. The Federal Reserve and OCC are tightening scrutiny on model risk management, data lineage, and transparency, pushing financial institutions not just to comply but to build controls that are auditable and explainable by design. That shift turns compliance from a periodic exercise into a strategic imperative — and it requires Finance teams at banks, credit unions, and asset managers to build integrated, automated data ecosystems that serve regulatory, audit, and investor demands at the same time.

Consolidation is accelerating fast: 52 bank M&A deals were announced in Q3 2025, totaling $16.6 billion in value — the highest level in years. Scale and technology investment are driving the trend, as institutions respond to margin compression and rising compliance costs.

Fifth Third Bancorp’s $10.9 billion acquisition of Comerica reflects a broader domestic pattern where mergers enable diversification, cost rationalization, and modernization at scale. Around the same time, Huntington Bancshares agreed to acquire Cadence Bank in a $7.4 billion all-stock deal, joining a wave of mega-regional combinations. These deals don’t just add size — they push acquirers into the “top 10” club of U.S. banks by assets, a pivotal step for institutions that were once purely regional. The implication is significant: consolidation builds the scale and resilience needed to compete, while also raising the systemic importance of these institutions.

For Finance leaders, this creates a dual mandate: harmonize and automate processes across legacy systems quickly, while preserving the local agility and specialized insight that regional and mid-sized institutions — including credit unions and asset managers expanding through acquisition — rely on to stand out. The winners will scale smartly, gaining efficiency and strength without losing the nimble, customer-centric DNA that defines their edge.

Together, these forces are redefining what it takes to compete. Credit risk pressures capital and investor confidence, evolving regulation shapes both deal-making and governance, and consolidation provides the scale to keep investing in technology and data. For Finance leaders, the takeaway is clear: move beyond reactive reporting toward proactive scenario planning, integrated risk-and-finance analytics, and agile capital allocation that anticipates disruption and positions the institution for resilient growth.

Resilience: From Safeguard to Strategic Advantage

If the past year proved anything, it’s that resilience isn’t built in calm periods — it’s forged through volatility. In Finance, resilience means the ability to see risk early, model the response, and act with confidence before disruption forces your hand. The pressures reshaping financial services have made it not just a defensive posture, but a measure of strategic strength.

Finance sits at the center of that shift. When economic, regulatory, and operational risks can converge in days, Finance leaders have to do more than maintain control — they have to enable agility.

In practice, resilience means:

• Strengthening data integrity and real-time visibility.
• Replacing manual, fragmented workflows with automation that frees capacity for richer analysis.
• Building continuous scenario modeling to test responses before they’re needed.
• Connecting financial and operational signals so Finance can guide the organization’s response, not just follow it.

Finance teams that can see, simulate, and steer outcomes across silos are redefining their value — not as scorekeepers, but as catalysts for confident, data-driven decisions. Governance and process discipline still matter, but technology has become the critical enabler. By unifying data, automating controls, and embedding AI-driven insight, Finance can move from reacting to volatility to managing it with intent.

At the September OneStream FSI Summit in New York, leaders from Accenture, PwC, and OneStream shared a common message: Finance must become the backbone of resilience. Real stability depends on how Finance organizes its work, connects its systems, and uses intelligence to guide decisions. Here’s how.

1. Reimagine the Work of Finance

Accenture’s research shows that disruption across business ecosystems has accelerated 183% since 2019, and nearly all organizations (98%) see technology — especially gen AI — as their primary lever for adapting. Incremental efficiency gains won’t cut it. Finance has to rethink how it delivers value by:

1. Automating routine close, reporting, and forecasting work to remove friction and manual effort.
2. Redirecting 30–50% of Finance capacity from collecting data to analyzing it, planning scenarios, and partnering with the business.
3. Connecting Finance, operations, and risk data into a single digital decision environment.
4. Treating every reporting cycle as a chance to improve, not just repeat.

2. Build a Unified Decision Core — Lead with CPM Before or Alongside ERP

PwC highlighted how CFO priorities are shifting away from cost-cutting toward stronger metrics, analytics, and reporting. Yet many institutions still start Finance transformation at the transactional ERP layer, which improves data capture but not decision quality. Leading with corporate performance management (CPM) instead lets Finance create:

1. A performance model that links financial statements with capital, liquidity, and risk plans — all on one consistent data foundation.
2. Early integration of regulatory frameworks (Basel III Endgame, LCR, NSFR) so compliance informs system design from the start.
3. A shared data model — chart of accounts, entity structure, and dimensionality designed once to serve both ERP and CPM, reducing duplication and speeding time to value.
4. Streamlined testing that validates data flow end to end, from GL to consolidation to management reporting.

3. Apply AI With Purpose

Despite heavy investment, only 45% of executives can measure ROI from AI, and fewer than half of models reach production. Finance doesn’t need science projects — it needs AI that works at scale:

1. Focusing deployments in finance-controlled domains like forecasting, anomaly detection, and variance analysis, where ROI is tangible.
2. Keeping every AI output explainable, traceable, and compliant with governance standards.
3. Training models on governed CPM data so inputs stay consistent and reliable.
4. Keeping Finance professionals in control, with guardrails built jointly with risk and compliance.

Applied this way, AI helps Finance shift from explaining what happened to anticipating what’s next — becoming a predictive and prescriptive force in the institution.

These three moves reinforce each other: reimagine the work, unify decisions, and operationalize intelligence. Connected through a unified platform like OneStream, they form the foundation for continuous insight — linking data, process, and performance into one intelligent ecosystem. The goal isn’t to chase technology; it’s to build a foundation where clarity, speed, and confidence work together.

Finance modernization isn’t a one-time project — it’s a steady evolution. By connecting data, processes, and insight, Finance becomes a constant source of truth, with resilience built on clarity rather than complexity.

The CFO playbook from the FSI Summit is compelling in theory — but M&A is where it’s truly put to the test.

In 2024, an American regional bank announced the largest deal in its history, expanding total assets by more than 50%. The transaction accelerated growth, but it also tested how quickly Finance could align systems, integrate data, and deliver trusted results across two complex organizations. The team faced the classic M&A challenge — turning scale into stability — and needed real-time visibility into consolidation, risk, and profitability as the merger closed. With OneStream, the bank was able to:

• Automate consolidation and reporting across the combined organization, eliminating manual mapping, integration, and data reconciliation.
• Establish consistent, Finance-owned reporting across hundreds of entities and branches.
• Integrate profitability and risk data to monitor spread rates, loan mix, and portfolio performance.
• Use scenario modeling to forecast balance-sheet impacts and assess merger outcomes.

M&A remains the ultimate stress test for resilience. It exposes fragmentation, pressure-tests process discipline, and rewards Finance teams that deliver clarity and control at deal speed. For any acquiring institution — bank, credit union, or asset manager — centralizing these capabilities on OneStream’s unified platform helps harmonize reporting, planning, and analytics to accelerate post-merger integration and strengthen long-term performance.

The past year has redefined what resilience means in banking and financial services. It’s no longer about recovery — it’s about readiness. The institutions that have performed best through volatility treat resilience as a design principle, not a reaction plan.

Resilience by design means building a Finance function that evolves as fast as the environment around it — where every process, model, and data connection is structured for transparency, agility, and control. It’s the architecture of a more intelligent finance organization: one that learns from disruption, adapts in real time, and grows stronger through change. OneStream provides that foundation, bringing data, planning, reporting, and AI together on one governed platform so banks, credit unions, and asset managers can move from surviving disruption to shaping what comes next.

As 2026 approaches, the conversation will shift from resilience to reinvention. The question isn’t how Finance can keep up — it’s how Finance can lead.

What does “resilience by design” mean in finance?

Resilience by design means building a finance function that adapts as fast as the market around it. Instead of reacting to disruption, finance structures every process, model, and data connection for transparency, agility, and control — so the institution can see risk early, model its response, and act with confidence.

Why is finance central to resilience in banking and financial services?

Economic, regulatory, and operational risks can now converge in days. Finance holds the data, planning, and analytics that let an institution respond quickly — turning fragmented reporting into real-time visibility, scenario modeling, and agile capital allocation. That makes Finance the function that turns resilience from a goal into an operating capability.

How should financial institutions apply AI in Finance?

Start where ROI is tangible and Finance is in control: forecasting, anomaly detection, and variance analysis. Keep every output explainable, traceable, and compliant; train models on governed data; and build guardrails jointly with risk and compliance. Applied this way, AI shifts finance from explaining the past to anticipating what’s next.

How can Finance leaders prepare for M&A integration?

Treat M&A as a stress test for resilience. Before the deal closes, Finance needs real-time visibility into consolidation, risk, and profitability across both organizations. Automating consolidation and reporting, establishing Finance-owned reporting across entities, and using scenario modeling to forecast balance-sheet impacts all help turn scale into stability at deal speed.

See how OneStream helps banks, credit unions, and asset managers build resilience by design and lead with intelligence.