In the last two decades, retail payments have experienced a dramatic shift from paper-based payment methods to electronic methods. Accurate cost information for the two types of methods would help central banks decide how hard to push for a complete transition to electronic methods and which...

The last decade has seen a surge in new methods for making person-to-person (P2P) payments. Despite the surge, studies show that U.S. consumers still prefer to make P2P payments with checks and cash. In fact, P2P payments by check are the only method of payment that is still increasing. ;...

While bank security holdings have increased sharply in recent years, there is widespread disagreement about the significance of the increase. Some analysts argue that the increase is not a cause for concern because it results from temporary factors such as the business cycle. Others argue that...

Recent development in Congress and the courts have focused attention on the relative roles of commercial banks, thrifts, and credit unions. As concern mounted last year about the state of the thrift deposit insurance fund, Congress required commercial banks to share the burden of recapitalizing...

The banking industry has undergone profound changes during the last decade. The most obvious change has been the large number of bank mergers, which have increased both the average size of banks and the area over which they operate. Other changes may also prove dramatic but are at this point...

Bank credit, the sum of loans and securities at commercial banks, is widely viewed as providing information about the current and future state of the economy. Analysts have been concerned about the behavior of bank credit during the nation's recovery from the 1990-91 recession. At first,...

During the last couple of years, concern has increased that the exceptionally rapid growth in business loans at commercial banks has been due in large part to excessively easy credit standards. Some analysts argue that competition for loan customers has greatly increased, causing banks to reduce...