For nearly two decades banks in the United States have consolidated in record numbers—in terms of both frequency and the size of the merging institutions. Rhoades (1996) hypothesizes that the main motivations were increased potential for geographic expansion created by changes in state laws...

Over the past several years, substantial research effort has gone into measuring the efficiency of financial institutions. Many studies have found that inefficiencies are quite large, on the order of 20% or more of total banking industry costs and about half of the industry's potential profits....

In the second quarter of 2009, the FDIC imposed a special assessment on insured banks to replenish the deposit insurance fund. While the traditional assessment base for regular deposit insurance premiums was all insured deposits, the special assessment was applied to a bank's total assets minus...

This study, empirically, investigates the determinants of bank profitability. Overall, I find that the Basel capital regime had no significant effect on bank profitability. This result is significant because it lends support to the view that modified Basel accord in different countries might be...

Economists may need to change their tools of analysis from analysing income and expenditure contributors (GDP) to asset value contributors -the net worth levels of individual households-. Assessment of the latter requires a balance sheet analysis. Why; because the level of individual...