Bank Merger Activity In The United States 1994 2003

During the 1980¿2003 period the number of banking org. in the U.S. decreased from 16,000 to 8,000, and mergers of healthy institutions were by far the most important cause of that consolidation. During that period, the share of industry assets held by the ten largest commercial banking org. rose from 22% to 46%, and the share of industry deposits held by the ten largest rose from 19% to 41%. The database employed in this study consists of the vast majority of mergers between separately owned banking org. This study covers every transaction in which the target institution or one of its banking subsid. was chartered in the U.S. and in which the acquirer and the target were, or owned, a commercial bank, savings bank, s&l assoc., or industrial bank.