that consolidation activity is unlikely to hurt business formation in the absence of intense competition in the credit … negligible effect on the rate of business formation. However, the intensification of competition in the credit union system may … entrepreneurship policies. In particular, they suggest that competition policies on the banking sector warrant greater attention as …

this negative effect was found to be very small when the degree of competition was low, it grew as competition intensified … competition that most acutely undermines small business lending, and by extension, new business formation in a concentrated credit …