According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, banking sector mergers and acquisitions activity reached its lowest level in the past five years in 2022, even lower than pandemic-affected 2020.

North America, which accounts for the highest number of bank M&A, had a 24.6 percent decline in the number of deals in 2022.

“U.S. banks stayed on the sidelines as heightened regulatory scrutiny and delayed closing timelines became major obstacles in M&A activities during the year,” the report stated.

Canadian institutions were heavily involved in some of the largest bank deals in 2022, with involvement in three of the five largest banking deals in North America. Toronto-Dominion Bank’s pending acquisition of Memphis, Tenn.-based First Horizon Corp. in an all-cash transaction valued at $13.67 billion was the largest bank M&A deal of 2022 and the fifth-largest U.S. bank M&A transaction in the last 15 years.