The Relevant Product Market for Bank Acquisitions

• Published date: 01 June 1996
• Date: 01 June 1996
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X9604100210
• Subject Matter: Article

The Antitrust Bulletin/Summer 1996

The relevant product market

for bank acquisitions

BY MICHAEL A. GREENSPAN*

and JACQUELINE T. COLCLOUGH*

I.

Introduction

453

Congress has provided for dual review of the competitive aspects

of

bank

acquisitions

by both the

Department

of

Justice

(the

Department) and, as appropriate, the Board

of

Governors of the

Federal Reserve System (the Federal Reserve), the Office of the

Comptroller of the Currency (the OCC), or the Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation (the FDIC) (jointly referred to as the bank-

ing agencies). The banking agencies and the Department analyze

transactions under the identical statutory standard, but sometimes

reach different conclusions as to the competitive consequences of

mergers.

A basis for such differences is that the banking agencies, fol-

lowing Supreme Court precedent, define the product market as the

cluster of services known as commercial banking. The Depart-

ment, on the other hand, disaggregates the cluster into its con-

stituent parts.

*Member of the D.C. bar.

©1996 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.