In their competitive analysis of proposed bank mergers, the Federal Reserve Board, Department of Justice, and other agencies accept branch divestitures as an antitrust remedy in local markets where there is substantial overlap between the acquirer and target. The results of this study, which...

This paper uses a large sample of individual banking organizations, observed from 1996 to 2003, to investigate the characteristics that made them more likely to be acquired. We use a definition of acquisition that we consider preferable to that used in much of the previous literature, and we...

This paper presents two tests of the hypothesis that adoption of the internal ratings-based approach to determining minimum capital requirements, as proposed in applying the Basel II capital accord in the United States, will cause adopting banking organizations to increase acquisition activity....

Mergers and acquisitions have significantly changed the U.S. banking industry over the past quarter century. This study examines patterns in the 3,517 mergers consummated among commercial banks and thrift institutions (savings banks, savings and loan associations, and industrial banks) during...

In the United States, antitrust authorities rely heavily on numerical measures of local banking market concentration such as the Herfindahl Hirschmann Index to assess the likely competitive effects of proposed bank mergers and acquisitions. This approach to antitrust enforcement relies on two...