Great Southern Bank and P&N Group (Police and Nurses Limited) are going their separate ways.
After signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to discuss a potential merger back last spring, the two customer-owned banks have decided not to proceed.
"Great Southern Bank has confirmed it has concluded exploratory merger discussions with Police & Nurses Limited," a spokesperson for Great Southern told Australian Broker in an email. "After careful consideration and a robust process, the Great Southern Bank board determined that progressing the merger would not be in the best interests of its members. There is no impact on Great Southern Bank customers, employees or day-to-day operations. All accounts, services, branches and call centers continue to operate as normal. We thank P&N Group for their engagement throughout the process and wish them well in their future endeavours."
P&N Group declined to comment further.
The potential deal, which was revealed in September, would have combined Great Southern with P&N Group — operator of P&N Bank and BCU Bank — creating one of Australia’s largest customer-owned banks with combined assets of around $30 billion. The merger would have also extended Great Southern’s existing presence across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland into a truly national footprint, leveraging P&N Bank’s strength in Western Australia alongside BCU’s reach in Northern NSW and Southeastern Queensland.
Andrew Hadley (pictured above), P&N group managing director and chief executive officer, said in September: “Banking continues to change at pace. Our industry is highly competitive, and given the critical investments required in digital banking, cyber security, technology and regulation, a merger of this scale would benefit our customers and help ensure that we remain competitive and sustainable."
P&N previously tried to merge with Beyond Bank in June 2024, but the deal was scrapped the following September.
Despite the tie-up between Great Southern and P&N falling through, Australia's M&A market continues to gain traction.
Global M&A deal volumes reached roughly $7.46 trillion AUD, (or $4.81 trillion USD), in 2025, up from $5.27 trillion AUD, (or $3.4 trillion USD), the year before, according to MergerMarket data. That's an increase of nearly 42%.
And the Australian markets, while smaller, still kept pace. In 2025, publicly-announced deals to buy or merge with companies that are based in Australia reached $143.8 billion AUD (or $92.8 billion USD), according to Dealogic.
Examples can be seen throughout the market with major lender consolidations and acquisitions. In November, Bank Australia wrapped up its second acquisition of 2025, this time with Australian Unity Bank. The lender also completed a merger with Qudos Bank in July. Earlier in April, Regional Australia Bank and Summerland Bank formally agreed to merge their operations by 2026. There's also Auswide Bank and MyState Bank Limited, G&C Mutual Bank and Unity Bank, Teachers Mutual Bank Limited and Australian Mutual Bank Limited, and People's Choice and Heritage Bank.
But dealmaking hasn't been limited to the banks. Brokerages are consolidating too, either out of necessity or to grow faster.
In December, Melbourne-based brokerage and advice business Inovayt acquired South Australian Fresh Home Loans, as first reported by Australian Broker. Three months earlier, Australian private equity firm Recludo Group revealed that it had snapped up three firms since the start of the year. The same month, alternative asset manager Salter Brothers agreed to buy private credit fund manager Causeway Asset Management Limited.
Flint Group merged with Brisbane-based brokerage FPW Group in December, rebranding as Flint Queensland, and marking Sydney-based Flint's second merger of 2025. In May, Flint merged with Brokerage & Co. in Adelaide.
"It's getting harder and harder for the smaller businesses to keep up. Bigger groups can see that, which is why we're starting to see M&A being more prevalent than it was two or three years ago," said Nick Reilly, founder and chief executive officer of Inovayt.
"The gap will continue to widen and eventually the smaller brokerages will really find it difficult to compete," he added. "I personally think we're just at the start of the journey."
