Bank & Credit Union Marketer's Guide to M&A Impact on Website

You aren’t alone: merger & acquisition activity is on the rise

In 2025, 324 U.S. bank and credit unions were absorbed through mergers or acquisitions - a 29.6% increase from 2024 (source: BankRegReports’ compilation of Federal Reserve National Information Center records). In 2026 and beyond, bank and credit union consolidation is expected to remain a key strategy as institutions look to scale investments in technology, modernization, and compliance.

The data aside, for customers and members, this is not simply a “corporate strategy”. It has very real impacts, from logging into online banking to visiting a branch and even receiving a new debit card in the mail. Just as importantly, this also is a potentially reputation altering event for the institution, and if not handled well, can be devastating to the relationship with existing and future customers and members.

With the right planning, merger or acquisition communications is key to how the public perceives this news and embraces the exciting changes to come.

Create a Phased Communication Plan

Your first step as a bank or credit union marketer is to create a very simple, clear communication plan for your customers or members.

• Customers/members need to know what is changing, when it is changing, and what they need to do. This can include how logins are impacted, any branch openings/closings, updated routing information and more. 
• This is just as important as any internal tasks so make sure you start this early – and revisit the plan often.
• Ensure that all communications touchpoints are consistent with messaging – from your website and mobile app to email communications and printed materials. 
• Make sure internal, customer/member-facing employees also have the same talk track – keeping digital and human communications consistent – and giving everyone confidence in the plan.

Brand Decisions & How They Impact Customer Experience

When two institutions merge, choosing how to bring their brands together is a strategic decision. This goes far beyond a logo change and impacts how customers or members interact with your institution, how employees represent the organization and most visibly how the brand is represented in branch, digitally and across other channels too. Below are the 3 brand options for a merger or acquisition. 

1. One brand is retired and the other survives. This approach is very common – especially if one institution acquires another. The combined institution adopts one existing name and identity, and the other brand is phased out entirely. The biggest challenge for marketers is helping customers or members of the retiring brand feel valued and supported as they adjust to the changes.
2. Both brands remain separate under shared ownership. This scenario preserves the brands of both institutions– while behind the scenes there are a variety of integrations taking place in areas like operations, technology, and support. This approach may be appropriate if both brands have established loyalty and brand recognition in their respective markets. The challenge with this approach is having firm guidelines in place and a plan for where the entities are independent versus combined.
3. A new brand that represents the combined organization. With this approach there is a new brand introduced. This may combine elements of each of the two brands or be entirely new – including a new name, logo, visual identity, positioning, and more. This is a great opportunity, but also a challenging one because the combined organization needs to build initial brand recognition and online brand equity and preserve trust – while changing nearly every customer and internal touchpoint.

Brand Impact on Website

Whichever approach is taken, marketing needs a very clear internal and external communication plan. The website, likely the centerpiece of the brand experience throughout the transition, needs to clearly communicate the plan to a variety of audiences, balancing simplicity and depth based on the audience’s needs.

1. Identify key digital engagement points: Make a list of the key engagement clients customers and members engage with the most. This likely includes your website, mobile app, online applications, chat and more.
2. Develop a plan for each. Establish branding and naming plans for each channel so that your plan is consistent and comprehensive.
3. Think like your customers and members. The one thing they want to know is “how does this impact me”, so be simple and direct in your messaging.
4. Be helpful and patient. The transition will take time, and likely require more reminders and support beyond the timeframe you initially envision.

Technical Considerations

It’s essential to do a technical deep dive early on. You will want to bring in folks from your development, network security, and marketing teams, each playing a different role, but all with a common end game. Questions you should ask right away include:

• If we have two websites, which is surviving and what is the impact?
• What is the impact on other systems including online account opening, marketing automation, chat, appointment scheduling, and more?
• What is the security impact of these technical decisions?

You will want to start by:

1. Creating a technical inventory including all platforms and vendors, and who internally owns the relationship. This will be labor intensive but incredibly important later on.
2. Understanding what budget each conversion line item each comes out of. If new projects need to be started and potentially new vendors onboarded, budget and timeline considerations are among the very first questions. Assume that this will take longer than you think.
3. Meeting with your compliance, IT, information security, and other stakeholders to understand the broader impact of these projects. All of this impacts the end customer or member experience and contributes to a smooth transition with less end user frustration.

Website Priorities

From the initial merger or acquisition announcement to a full “welcome” microsite or page, the website needs a dedicated plan.

• Creating a microsite or landing page is a popular approach. This is where you can point traffic from both sites, press releases, social communications and more for key transition information. If you are introducing a new domain, this is a great opportunity to have this site or page live there to “warm up” the new domain and avoid any phishing concerns later on.
• The page/microsite should have information about key dates, FAQs, any required actions, and any other helpful guidance. Over time, this may evolve to have other information too, but it’s important to keep this simple, skimmable and actionable.
• Once a plan is set for the branding and domain, there are a lot more questions to ask and details to sort out. For example:

• How are products and product names changing?
• How does the geographic footprint of branches change?

• While your website analytics won’t be the first thing you think of, you’ll be remiss if you don’t determine a plan overall for measuring success. Your approach to website analytics will be different depending on the tactic you choose above but make sure that you don’t lose historical information. 

• Define all KPIs – both measurable through analytics, call center activity and NPS, and qualitative too.
• Have a goal around measuring key goals and conversions.
• If you are paying for any third-party vendors based on site traffic, you’ll need to proactively plan and budget for this traffic change when vendor contracts come up for renewal.
• Create or update any reporting so that you can report on any key outcomes shortly after launch and for the months to come after.
• Have an escalation plan should the data reveal issues with customer/member satisfaction or conversions.

• A merger or acquisition can have significant SEO/GEO impact, so you will want to involve your vendor(s) early on. Your specific plan will vary depending on the tactic you choose but the many considerations include:

• Domain changes and URL redirects.
• Meta tag updates from a brand change and/or content changes.
• Local listing updates relating to a brand, additional locations, address changes and more.
• Schema updates related to the above.

Preparation, execution and flexibility are key

M&A activity for banks and credit union creates an opportunity to improve the digital experience, but only when the transition is designed around customer/member clarity, operational readiness, and ongoing measurement. Working with an agency or partner experienced with this to guide you along the way can help make this more organized and less stressful and ultimately save you money and mitigate reputational risks.