AbstractThis paper studies the financial characteristics of commercial banks involved in interstate acquisitions by using the multivariate analysis of variance and principal components analysis statistical techniques. Our results show that the financial characteristics of the acquired banks are not significantly different from the financial characteristics of comparably sized nonacquired banks. However, our findings indicate that there are significant differences between the financial characteristics of the acquiring banks and comparably sized nonacquiring banks. Our findings also indicate that there are significant differences between the financial characteristics of the acquiring banks and the acquired banks.