Until this year, Citigroup was the only $1 trillion banking organization in the U.S. Now, there are two more—Bank of America has merged with FleetBoston, and J.P. Morgan Chase is about to complete its merger with Bank One. These megamergers are notable not only for their size but also for the...

This paper begins with a discussion of the influence of the number of firms and the variance of market shares on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) measure of market concentration. ; The paper then reports the changes in the number of depository institutions (DIs) and in the HHI in the Twelfth...

A main public policy concern regarding the massive consolidation of the banking industry between 1984 and 2003 is the consolidation's potential effect on competition in local banking markets. Examining this period for the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, I find, on the whole, moderate increases...