Bank consolidation before and after the 2008 crisis

This article statistically tests the impact of the financial crisis and of Dodd-Frank on the decade-long trends in banking consolidation in developed countries. The results show that though the trends have been consistent, widespread and powerful, the financial crisis was significant enough to increase the rate of decrease in commercial banks. However, the crisis seems to have moderated the trend towards greater concentration as measured by the Herfindahl Index. The identification of the global nature of these trends and their recent changes is critical in directing future research targeted to resolving the debate over the social good of bank concentration.