Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.

This far-reaching study shows that operating efficiencies are not what are driving today's unrelenting bank merger mania. It suggests that bank mergers and consolidation may have effects that are contrary to consumer and non-financial business interests, such as lower rates of interest, increasing fees, and tighter credit constraints. Dymski recommends several new policies to apply to the evaluation of prospective mergers.

This handbook provides an overview and analysis of state-of-the-art research in banking written by researchers in the field. It includes abstract theory, empirical analysis, and practitioner and policy-related material.

The basic functions of banking—lending, deposit taking, and making payments—are constant. What changes are the forms banking takes in response to increases in competition, globalizaion, new laws, and emerging technologies. Among the most visible of these changes will be an increase in the consolidation and globalization of banking in the world's major trading countries. Now, prestigious academics and practitioners, including regulators from around the world, join Benton E. Gup in exploring these coming changes—and by doing so, define a global perspective on banking's future. They find that the consolidation of banking will persist on a global scale. Electronic banking in all its forms will increase in importance, and banking in mature economies will be even more different from what it is now in developing economies. While focusing on the financial system in the United States, Gup's panel of contributors also explores financial systems in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Like Gup, they predict that a small handful of very large banks will control a disproportionate share of bank assets. Their views provide an unusual survey of current thinking in the domains of banking and finance, and an important source of current information, background, and foresights for banking and finance practitioners, students, and academics.

The Oxford Handbook of Banking, Second Edition provides an overview and analysis of developments and research in banking written by leading researchers in the field. This handbook will appeal to graduate students of economics, banking and finance, academics, practitioners, regulators, and policy makers. Consequently, the book strikes a balance between abstract theory, empirical analysis, and practitioner, and policy-related material. The Handbook is split into five parts. Part I, The Theory of Banking, examines the role of banks in the wider financial system, why banks exist, how they function, and their corporate governance and risk management practices. Part II deals with Bank Operations and Performance. A range of issues are covered including bank performance, financial innovation, and technological change. Aspects relating to small business, consumer, and mortgage lending are analysed together with securitization, shadow banking, and payment systems. Part III entitled Regulatory and Policy Perspectives discusses central banking, monetary policy transmission, market discipline, and prudential regulation and supervision. Part IV of the book covers various Macroeconomic Perspectives in Banking. This part includes a discussion of systemic risk and banking and sovereign crises, the role of the state in finance and development as well as how banks influence real economic activity. The final Part V examines International Differences in Banking Structures and Environments. This part of the Handbook examines banking systems in the United States, European Union, Japan, Africa, Transition countries, and the developing nations of Asia and Latin America.

This paper reports the on-off nature of emerging market access to international capital markets appears to have become a key characteristic of international financial markets. Emerging market borrowers have begun to adapt: when the market for US dollar-denominated bonds has closed, these borrowers turn to the syndicated loan markets, attempt to issue in bonds denominated in euro or yen, or issue in local-currency bond markets. In addition, they employ staff with extensive experience in investment banking and securities trading, exploit “windows of opportunity” to prefund their yearly financing requirement, and engage in debt exchanges to extend the maturity of their debt and avoid a bunching of maturities. The consolidation of financial institutions is driven by attempts to exploit economies of scale and scope, and technological advances such as the Internet and deregulation that facilitate universal banking activities are making it easier to reap such economies. Advances in technology are also transforming the securities trading industry.