Deregulation, technological change, and increased competitive rivalry are transforming U.S. commercial banking from an industry dominated by thousands of small, locally focused banks into an industry where a handful of large banks could potentially span the nation and control the majority of its...

This paper critically reviews the literature examining the role of central banks in addressing systemic risk. We focus on how the growth in derivatives markets might affect that role. Analysis of systemic risk policy is hampered by the lack of a consensus theory of systemic risk. We propose a...