“Shotgun” Bank M&As

The U.S. credit crisis, which started with the failure of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in 2008, began a wave of bank mergers. The huge scale of government loans and support for “shotgun“ bank mergers has been unprecedented in scope. In a mad rush to save the banks and the economy, the Federal Reserve and the Department of Justice disregarded more than a century of antitrust regulations. These actions have created many problems‐and they raise questions about the need for more transparency in the banking sector. What steps are being taken to promote more transparency? What will be the results? And how can your company avoid banks that may be forced into a merger? © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.