Brian, could you walk us through your professional background and your journey to becoming Head of Product at Rational Exponent?
My background has always sat at the intersection of banking, risk, and technology. I spent years working with financial institutions that were trying to modernize legacy processes while still operating under intense regulatory pressure. What I kept seeing was the same pattern. Smart teams, good intentions, but tools that were never designed for the complexity banks actually face today.
Rational Exponent was built by former bankers, technologists, business innovators, and successful entrepreneurs, who’ve experienced firsthand how innovation stalls without the right bridge between innovation and execution. My role has been to lead the company’s AI go-to-market strategies, allowing clients to generate meaningful business value by translating real operational and regulatory challenges into products that actually work inside a bank’s day-to-day reality.
That is why we created re:agent: to turn complex regulatory and operational data into clear, actionable intelligence banks can actually use.
You’ve compared the current bank M&A environment to dating apps, institutions “swiping” through potential partners. What’s changed in 2026 that makes this analogy especially relevant now?
What changed is not just deregulation. What changed is the tempo of opportunity. When regulatory friction drops, deal velocity spikes, and the bottleneck becomes “how fast can you prove you’re safe to merge.” re:agent turns readiness from a scramble into a standing condition by continuously maintaining an evidence-backed operating picture—policy → controls → procedures → real operations—so a bank can respond to M&A interest immediately, not after a 90-day documentation fire drill.
Larger banks are beginning to “swipe” through smaller banks, much like a dating app, comparing balance sheets, operating models, the maturity of risk management, and geographic fit to decide which ones are worth pursuing.
The problem is that many banks aren’t ready for acquisition. Two profiles may look compatible on paper, but undocumented processes, inconsistent controls, or compliance gaps can quickly derail a deal or prevent approval from regulators.
The banking merger landscape is shifting in 2026, and the winners will be those who treat regulatory readiness as a competitive differentiator.
Deregulation is opening the door to more mergers, but many banks still aren’t acquisition-ready. What are the most common gaps you see when larger institutions start their due diligence?
The recurring gap is “confidence.” Not confidence in the balance sheet, confidence in governance reality. Most banks can say they have policies and controls; far fewer can prove those controls exist, are consistently applied, and are connected to the actual way work gets done. re:agent closes that gap by mapping the full chain of evidence and keeping it current, so diligence becomes verification, not discovery.
Banks often struggle to clearly explain what their risk and compliance framework actually looks like in practice. Policies may exist, but procedures are uneven. Controls are applied differently across teams, and documentation doesn’t always reflect how the bank truly operates.
When acquirers dig in, they want answers to basic questions. How does risk management actually function day to day? Are policies, procedures, and control standards clearly defined and consistently followed? If those answers are unclear, it slows deals down, and raises concerns. That’s where many otherwise strong institutions lose momentum during diligence.
From your perspective, what does “regulatory readiness” actually look like in practice, beyond just having policies documented?
Readiness is not “we have documents.” Readiness is “we have traceability.” It means you can start from a regulatory requirement or a control objective and show quickly and credibly where it lives in policy, how it becomes procedures, what controls enforce it, and what evidence shows it’s working. re:agent makes that traceability continuous, so readiness doesn’t decay the moment the audit ends.
You’ve said that two banks may look compatible on the surface, but governance and operating mismatches can kill a deal. Where do those mismatches most often show up?
They show up where there’s a “hidden operating model.” The acquiring bank discovers that decisions are made informally, controls are tribal, exceptions aren’t tracked consistently, and the real workflow diverges from the written one. Our product, re:agent reduces that surprise factor by producing a living operational portrait: the bank as it actually operates so compatibility is assessed on reality, not narratives.
McKinsey’s Future of Risk report highlights that many banks are still relying on slow, manual processes. How does this operational reality affect a bank’s attractiveness as an acquisition target?
Manual processes are not just slower, they’re also less legible. It makes it harder for an acquirer to know what they’re buying and harder for regulators to believe the combined institution will be controlled. re:agent increases legibility by turning the risk-and-compliance posture into something that can be inspected: mapped, evidenced, and explained. That reduces perceived integration risk, which is exactly what drives premiums versus discounts.
McKinsey’s “Future of Risk” analysis identifies a widening flaw in the sector: most banks are still stuck with slow, manual processes which introduce uncertainty. They slow diligence, increase integration risk, and make future regulatory outcomes harder to predict. From an acquirer’s standpoint, that translates directly into higher cost and higher risk.
Banks that rely on automated, continuously updated risk and compliance intelligence are much easier to evaluate. They can quickly answer questions with evidence, not anecdotes. That transparency makes them far more attractive as acquisition targets.
Rational Exponent was built by bankers who saw these problems emerging early. What are you hearing directly from customers right now as this M&A window starts to open?
What we hear is that banks feel the window opening but they also feel exposed. They know interest and opportunity arrive faster than internal teams can assemble proof. re:agent changes the posture from reactive to prepared by keeping the bank’s operating evidence continuously organized, so when opportunity shows up, the bank can move immediately with a regulator-grade narrative.
You often talk about banks needing a clear “operational portrait” of themselves. What does that mean, and why is it so critical during M&A discussions?
An operational portrait is your bank rendered into an inspectable system: what you require, what you say, what you do, and what proves it. In M&A, that portrait becomes speed. It reduces diligence from archaeology to confirmation. re:agent produces and maintains that portrait by connecting regulatory obligations to the artifacts and behaviors that satisfy them so trust is built on evidence, not persuasion.
With a three-to-five-year window to modernize risk frameworks, how can banks use this deregulatory moment not just to comply, but to fundamentally reinvent how risk is managed?
This is the moment to shift from reactive compliance to proactive risk intelligence. Banks can embed guidance directly into operations, continuously map how controls align with policies, and surface issues before they become regulatory or financial problems.
The reinvention is moving from “risk as documentation” to “risk as operating intelligence.” re:agent enables that by making policies and controls active: continuously mapped to operations and continuously monitored for drift. The banks that win will treat this moment as an acceleration cycle: compressing decision time, shrinking approval friction, and scaling confidently without multiplying headcount.
Those that invest now will not only be better positioned for M&A, but also more agile, more resilient, and better equipped to grow in whatever regulatory environment comes next.
Finally, what advice would you give to bank leaders today who want to make their institutions stand out, before this window closes?
Build “always-on approval readiness.” That’s the difference between being chosen and being passed over. re:agent gives you a standing state of readiness by keeping your governance portfolio coherent, current, and provable so when the market moves, you don’t pause to assemble binders; you execute. In a fast M&A market, the bank that can prove control fastest wins the deal and captures the premium.
Bank leaders should start by getting honest about their operational excellence. Don’t rely on static reports or annual exercises to understand your risk posture. Invest in systems that give you clarity every day, not just during regulatory reviews or M&A activity.
The banks that stand out will be the ones that can clearly show who they are, how they operate, and how they manage risk with confidence.In this market, being approval-ready is what separates opportunity from missed deals.
