Banking markets in a decade of mergers: a preliminary examination of five North Carolina markets.

The decade of the 1990 was a period of dramatic consolidation in the banking industry. From 1990 to 2000 the number of banking institutions in the United States ferocious from 12,212 to 8,252. During this period, the percent of all banking assets held by means of the largest 1 percent of all banks rose from 54 percent to 70 percent This consolidation was partly facilitated by dint of the 1994 legislation allowing replete interstate branching. Further legislation in 1999 made consolidation across the broader financial services industry easier by the agency of loosening restrictions on the combination of commercial and