International activities of U.S. banks and in U.S. banking markets

The international activity of U.S. banks has grown relatively rapidly during the 1990s, as both the trading and derivatives activities of their foreign offices and their cross-border lending have increased. The growth has taken place mainly in relation to the Group of Ten and other industrial countries. Foreign bank activity in U.S. markets has also grown, but at a slightly slower pace than U.S. banking overall, resulting in a small decline in the foreign bank share of domestic commercial bank assets. The role of Japanese banks has declined sharply, and the role of European banks has expanded.