Winter 2001/2002, Vol 26, No 4

Abstract: The advent of a substantial number of intrastate and interstate bank mergers and acquisitions has led to a large volume of research that has concluded that no “local effects” are evident in the data and therefore mergers and acquisitions do not create any anti-competitive elements. However, the data and analysis the authors present in this study demonstrate that local effects do exist when the discrete lending categories are analyzed. The results show that in some states these concentrations are so significant in the post-event environment, that there is virtually no competition among banks in the market for commercial and industrial real estate lending.