A Fresh Look at Bank Mergers

The FinReg Pod

Jeremy Kress is Assistant Professor of Business Law at Michigan Ross and Co-Faculty Director of the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy. Jeremy joins Lee to discuss how policymakers’ long-standing approach to bank antitrust—premised on consumer welfare—has reduced the cost and availability of basic financial services and ignores numerous non-price harms stemming from bank consolidation. Jeremy details how the Chicago school of antitrust and its focus on consumer welfare came to dominate bank merger review, the impact of fintech on bank competition, and recent policy actions that foreshadow a more stringent review of bank mergers going forward.

Jeremy’s Twitter: @Jeremy_Kress

GFMC’s Twitter: @DukeGFMC

Lee’s Twitter: @leereiners

Related Links:

* Modernizing Bank Merger Review* by Jeremy Kress https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3440914

* Reviving Bank Antitrust * by Jeremy Kress https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4039197

* Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American* https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/

* Antitrust Division Seeks Additional Public Comments on Bank Merger Competitive Analysis* U.S. Department of Justice https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/antitrust-division-seeks-additional-public-comments-bank-merger-competitive-analysis

* Request for Public Comment on the Bank Merger Act* Joint Statement of Martin J. Gruenberg and Rohit Chopra, Members, FDIC Board of Directors https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_bank-merger-act-rfi_joint-statement_2021-12.pdf