In analyzing the competitive impacts of bank consolidations, banking agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice tend to rely on the assumption that the market for bank services is local and is for services offered only by banks. This approach allows analysts to merge all products and services...

Since about 1974, banks' share of the market for short-term business lending has been steadily eroded through competition with nonbank creditors. This paper tries to identify some factors that may affect bank competitiveness in this category in the short fun and discusses how these factors may...