Abstract: In response to fundamental changes in regulation and technology, the
financial industry around the world is undergoing an unprecedented
wave of consolidation. A growing body of empirical literature has
attempted to measure the efficiency gains from M&As; however there is
little sense of how the results might depend on the country, industry
and time period analysed. In this paper we review critically works
that cover the main sectors of the financial industry (commercial and
investment banks, insurance and asset management companies) in the
major industrialised countries over the last twenty years, searching
for common patterns that transcend national and sectoral
peculiarities. We find that consolidation in the financial sector is
beneficial up to a relatively small size in order to reap economies of
scale, but there is little evidence that mergers yield economies of
scope or gains in managerial efficiency.
Keywords: Mergers, efficiency, bank mergers
Full paper (2493 KB PDF)
Home | FEDS | List of 2002 FEDS papers
Accessibility
To comment on this site, please fill out our feedback form.
Last update: October 10, 2002
|