Describe the wave of mergers in the banking industry

Question

Describe the wave of mergers in the banking industry?
Many economic factors have caused banking institutions to merge over the past various years. What are these factors comprise Please explain breifly...

Answer 1

• Greater efficiency. Banks frequently are able to operate more cost efficiently by increasing their size. The costs of numerous functions don't double while the scale of operation doubles. Therefore mergers are one way to keep costs and prices down.

• Leveraging technology. Banks & their customers have become accustomed increasingly to the advantages of new and costly technologies. Lots of technologies are too costly unless costs can be spread over a large number of customers. Mergers are frequently necessary to allow banks to introduce & maintain the technologies customers demand increasingly.

• Changing laws. Laws which had prevented several banks from operating in more than one state recently have been eliminated or overridden. The advent of interstate banking and branching means more chance for banks operating in distinct states to merge with each other.

• Diversification. One effective means of controlling risks inherent in bank lending is to diversify operations across distinct geographic regions and different kind of customers. Mergers can help diversify such risks.

• Broader array of products. Mergers may give banking institutions chance to offer a broader array of services. A merger of two banks along with different expertise can result in a combination more to the liking of customers looking for one-stop shopping.