Banking, Mergers, and Antitrust: Historical Perspectives, and the Research Tasks Ahead

• Author: Lawrence J. White
• Published date: 01 June 1996
• Date: 01 June 1996
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X9604100204
• Subject Matter: Article

The Antitrust Bulletin/Summer 1996

Banking, mergers, and antitrust:

historical perspectives, and the

research tasks ahead

BY LAWRENCE J. WHITE*

I.

Introduction

323

The

United

States economy is currently experiencing amajor

wave of bank mergers. Hundreds of bank mergers are occurring

annually and will surely continue to do so for the next few years.

Some of these mergers are "megadeals" involving tens of billions

of

dollars

of

assets

and

nationally

prominent

banks;

others

involve "mere" tens

of

millions of dollars and small rural banks

with names that few individuals outside their local communities

will recognize. Also, though less frequent,

important

mergers

among automated teller machine (ATM) networks are occurring.

The crucial forces underlying both types of mergers involve dra-

matic improvements in data processing and

telecommunications-

the fundamental technologies underlying financial

services-and

*Arthur E. Imperatore Professor of Economics, Stern School of

Business, New York University, NY.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I would like to thank Stephen Rhoades, Sherrill Shaffer,

and Bernard Shull

for

their useful comments on an earlier draft.

© 1996 by Federal Legal Publications. Inc.