This review article examines merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the banking sector, driven by the expanding use of bibliometric evaluations in finance and global consolidation trends. The systematic review portion of the study was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, ensuring transparent identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion of the studies. Using co-citation, co-authorship, and keyword co-occurrence network analysis, we present a novel and integrative literature review that not only maps influential journals, authors, papers, and countries but also critically synthesises existing knowledge, highlights theoretical and methodological gaps, and proposes future research directions for the field. Analysing 7,734 papers from the Scopus database (2000–2023) highlights the dominance of wealthy nations, which creates opportunities for the study of risk-return dynamics and regulatory changes in emerging economies. The project is the first of its kind in the field of research on bank mergers, and it will contribute to a reservoir of literature by identifying prospective research areas using Scopus database articles.

Banks, merger and acquisition, credit risk, systemic risk, bibliographic analysis

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