As regional banks scale up, Nashville’s financial footprint expands

Writer: Eleana Teran

October 2025 — Nashville’s banking sector is ripe for change as two recent M&A deal announcements, Pinnacle Financial Partners merger with Synovus and Fifth Third Bancorp’s acquisition Comerica, will reshape the city’s financial landscape amid broader bank consolidation in the United States.

Fifth Third’s planned $10.9 billion acquisition of Dallas-based Comerica marks a significant development in the banking landscape. The deal will create the nation’s ninth-largest bank, with roughly $288 billion in assets, and expand Fifth Third’s presence across the Southeast, Texas and California. For Nashville, where the bank already ranks as the ninth-largest bank with $3.8 billion in local deposits, the merger reinforces the city’s growing role in the regional financial network. The Cincinnati-based bank has been steadily deepening its Tennessee footprint, including a $20 million investment in North Nashville and the relocation of its regional headquarters to Germantown’s Neuhoff District. 

“Tennessee remains a crucial part of our success,” David Briggs, regional president for Fifth Third Bank, told Invest:. “We are deploying $180 million in capital through various initiatives, including opening 11 new financial centers,” he said. 

“Our company continues to support investment in talent, hiring aggressively and adding key leadership in Memphis while maintaining momentum in Middle Tennessee. From a holistic standpoint, no other regional bank is building as many financial centers as we are,” he added.

Pinnacle Financial Partners, headquartered in Nashville, announced in July its plan to merge with Synovus Financial in an $8.6 billion all-stock transaction that would create a regional bank with more than $115 billion in assets. Since the announcement, the implied value of the deal has declined to about $6.98 billion, reflecting broader uncertainty in the regional banking sector as investors weigh integration risks, higher capital requirements, and the potential impact of prolonged interest-rate pressure. The combined company would surpass the $100 billion asset threshold that classifies a bank as a “large financial institution,” bringing stricter capital and liquidity requirements that can pressure profitability.

Despite the market’s initial reaction, Pinnacle’s leadership remains focused on long-term performance and the merger is expected to close in early 2026, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. In an interview with Invest: prior to the announcement, Tom O’Connor, market executive at Synovus, noted that consolidation across the financial services industry will likely continue, particularly in heavily banked markets like Middle Tennessee. “Consolidation has pros and cons, but it’s inevitable,” he said. “We’re closely watching the regulatory environment and the growth of the private credit market, which is competing more with the banking sector. Another area of interest is the evolving relationship between banks and fintechs, and creating partnerships that could lead to better offerings for clients.”

Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence shows that M&A activity this year is on par with 2024 levels, though deal value spiked in July to $10.83 billion, the highest since mid-2021, signaling renewed efforts by regional lenders to scale up amid rising costs and tighter regulatory expectations.

The acceleration in mid-2025 reflects more than dealmaking momentum. Banks are facing margin compression. While the banking industry recorded a 5.8% rise in profits in 1Q25, the FDIC noted that loan growth remains slow and provisions tied to commercial real estate are elevated, signaling uneven performance across the industry. 

READ MORE: Middle-market M&A activity drives economic transformation

Recent data shows that dealmaking has remained resilient despite market volatility, supported by high levels of available capital and the need for technological transformation in multiple sectors. 

As Jim Meade, CEO and managing shareholder of accounting and advisory firm LBMC, noted in an interview with Invest:, “Significant M&A activity exists in public accounting today. This has been fueled in part by the introduction of private equity and the expected need for organizational size to invest in digital transformation and industry challenges.” That same logic applies to banking — scaling up provides the infrastructure to support innovation and absorb costs tied to regulation and technology. For Nashville, these deals are likely to enhance the city’s banking diversity and capital availability, as larger institutions expand their investment base and lending capacity in key growth markets across the Southeast. 

Want more? Read the Invest: Nashville report.