There have been increasing concerns about the declining number of community banks and that the acquisitions of community banks by larger banks might result in significant reductions in small business lending (SBL) and disrupt relationship lending. This paper examines the roles and...

Using a novel method to separate US community banks over the 1984-2013 period from their non-community counterparts we compare the two bank types on the basis of cost efficiency. We decompose cost efficiency into a persistent and a residual component; the former capturing the market structure...

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Additional Thanks -- Chapter 1: An Overview of the Bankruption -- Community Banking Has No Future -- Community Banking Relies Too Heavily on Physical Proximity -- Today, Data Proximity Yields Intimacy -- Data Proximity...

This study examines the reaction of the Standard and Poor's Regional Bank Index (SPRB) to the U.S. equity market fear index (i.e., the Chicago Board of Trade Volatility Index [VIX]). The VIX is designed to perform as a leading indicator of the volatility in equity markets. However, practitioners...