How do we measure in the banking industry? This article provides an overview of the methodology currently used in competitive analysis and highlights an alternative techniques that could be used to complement this methodology. Given the ongoing process of consolidation in U.S. banking, assessing...

Thousands of new commercial banks have been chartered in the U.S. over the past two decades. This article documents how the financial characteristics of new banks evolve over time, develops a simple theory of why and when new banks fail, and tests the theory using a variety of methods.

This article examines the primary motivations for the massive wave of bank mergers in the U.S. during the 1990s by analyzing the prices paid for target banks. The authors find that these prices reflect both general market and firm-specific characteristics. For example, the lifting of regulatory...

Ten years of deregulation, new technology, and increase competition have made the U.S. banking industry a less hospital place for many community banks. But the consensus view among ten community bankers recently surveyed by the Federal Reserve is that rapid industry change has provided...

“Banks” are regulated by the government. However, because the generic term bank applies to a number of different types of financial institutions that provide different services, different types of regulation are required. This issue has attracted much attention in recent years as...

This article summarizes a conference, titled “Issues Related to Central Counterparty Clearing,” cosponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the European Central Bank on April 3–4, 2006. The conference brought together industry executives, policymakers, and research economists to...

Polish banks have been weakened by large loan losses and low capital. Recapitalization and better economic conditions have strengthened the industry, but problems remain, especially among some large state-owned banks. Continued improvement of the banking system will require additional domestic...

The Second Bank of the United States was an institution of first-rank importance, both politically and economically, during the early nineteenth century. This article uses recent contributions to theory on industrial organization and monetary economics to argue tentatively that conflict between...