This cash-rich Boston-area bank is on the lookout for deals

• Key insight: The $6.9 billion-asset Cambridge Savings Bank is ready to buy a nearby rival if it spots the right opportunity.
• Supporting data: Cambridge grew its equity capital by 16% in the two years ending Dec. 31.
• Expert quote:  “We don’t have to go out and buy somebody … but we really want to have the optionality to do that.” – CEO Ryan Bailey

After stashing a significant amount of capital the past two years, the $6.9 billion-asset Cambridge Savings Bank in Massachusetts is ready to dip into its war chest to fuel expansion. 

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Cambridge, a depositor-owned bank chartered in 1834, opened a branch — its 19th — in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood in July. Now, It is eyeing potential mergers in Greater Boston and adjoining markets, CEO Ryan Bailey told American Banker. 

“We want to be continuous to where we’re at,” Bailey said in an interview. “We’re not going to go out and buy a bank in Florida. If it’s surrounding the Greater Boston area … we’re looking at anything that makes sense for Cambridge Savings Bank.”

“We’ve strengthened the balance sheet to create optionality for the bank,” Bailey added. “We don’t have to go out and buy somebody … but we really want to have the optionality to do that. If something comes on the market that is appealing to us, we want to be able to do that.”

Cambridge is no stranger to bank acquisitions, despite its mutual status, which means that it can’t use stock as currency in deals. In 2020, it paid approximately $58 million in cash to acquire the $333.8 million Melrose Bancorp in Melrose, Mass.

The Cambridge Mass.,-based company’s renewed interest in M&A follows an especially busy year for Bay State banks.  Four major combinations were either announced or completed in 2025.

They included Rockland, Mass.-based Rockland Trust’s $562 million purchase of Enterprise Bancorp in Lowell, Mass., in July, and the $1.1 billion-asset merger of equals between Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Boston and the nearby Brookline Bancorp, completed in September. Meanwhile, both NB Bancorp in Needham and Boston-based Eastern Bancorp completed acquisitions in November. 

Though some analysts have predicted a slower pace to dealmaking in 2026 as a result of the Iran War and related economic turbulence, Bailey believes there are still plenty of potential partners for Cambridge.

“There are small banks out there that are having a hard time because they have to spend as much digitally as we do,” Bailey said. “They don’t have the scale and economies to do that. They are looking at other options.” 

Bailey added that he devotes “a good amount of my time” to networking with CEO colleagues. 

“We may participate in loans with them,” he said. “They may have a desire to merge with us.”

‘A fortress balance sheet’

Bailey’s confidence is undergirded by Cambridge’s balance sheet. Even though it was well-capitalized prior to his arrival in February 2024, Bailey made building capital a major priority. Equity capital totaled $703.5 million on Dec. 31, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. statistics, up 16% over the past two years.

“That’s pretty powerful,” Bailey said. “We say we have a fortress balance sheet, and we do.”

Cambridge’s deposits totaled $5.57 billion on Dec. 31, up 3.6% in two years. The increase was powered in large part by Ivy Bank, its digital banking division. Indeed, Ivy has seen its deposits reach $1.3 billion, up 30% since October 2024.

“To be able to take deposits in 49 states and lend locally is what it’s all about,” Bailey said. “For a community bank, we punch way above our weight.”