2023-06-20 13:49:52 ET
The U.S. Justice Department is evaluating new guidelines for bank mergers, saying times have changed since the latest rules were announced almost 30 years ago.
"The world today – including the banking system – is radically different than it was in 1995," Jonathan Kanter, head of the DOJ's antitrust division, said in prepared remarks in a speech on Tuesday. "With the popularization of interstate banking, financial conglomeration, online and mobile banking, and the digital transformation of our economy, the banking system of today bears little resemblance to the banking system of three decades ago."
The DOJ plans to closely scrutinize mergers that increase risks associated with "coordinated effects and multi-market contact," according to Kanter. The regulator will also consider how a proposed merger may affect competition for different customer segments.
"While we will scrutinize any transaction that presents substantive legal concerns, we will not limit our analysis to small and local bank acquisitions—where appropriate, we will also scrutinize the largest and most powerful actors," Kanter said in his remarks at a Brookings Institution event.
Kanter's comments come after President Joe Biden almost two years ago tasked the DOJ and agencies responsible for banking to update guidelines on banking mergers "to provide more robust scrutiny of mergers."
The DOJ antitrust enforcer's comments follow the recent banking crisis that started in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, where some pundits and leaders have argued for more bank consolidation. Last month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen laid out the p otential need for additional bank mergers, CNN reported.
More on banks and M&A
- Dilution And M&A Coming To Banks
- Banks Get Sucked Into M&A Black Box
- More On Banks And Bank Failures
- U.S. considering new rules for regional banks, complicating bank mergers - report
For further details see:
Justice Dept. to evaluate bank merger guidelines