Federal interstate banking and branching reform is about to become a reality, with the first phase of new legislation going into effect later this year. Past experience at the state level suggests that reform will accelerate the pace of industry consolidation but may not lead immediately to...

On October 25, 2002, Thomas C. Baxter, Jr., General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, presented the following remarks at the Puerto Rico Bankers Association conference "Financial Transparency and Corporate Governance of Financial Institutions after the...

Last year's sharp drop in the capital ratios of bank holding companies could cast doubt on the companies' future capital strength, especially if credit quality eroded significantly or if profitability weakened. However, an analysis linking the drop in ratios to bank efforts to increase...

In recent years, the nation's largest bank holding companies have sharply increased their market share of assets. Have these institutions achieved their dominance by expanding their existing subsidiaries or by merging with other bank holding companies? A study of industry data for 1990-99...