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Mergers in Financial Services: Why the Rush?
Author(s) -
Harper Ian R.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8462.00137
Subject(s) - citation , library science , history , computer science
The financial services industry worldwide is gripped by merger mania. More than 4000 mergers have taken place annually in the United States alone in the last few years. In many countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, major mergers amongst the largest banks have either been announced or mooted subject to legislative approval. 1 Not only is the number of deals growing, so too is the average value of merger deals. The merger of CitiBank with Travelers’ Insurance and Salomon Smith Barney to form CitiGroup created the largest financial institution in history. In 1997, merger deals in the financial sector in the United States were worth more than $US500 billion. The merger of BankAmerica and Nation’s Bank alone was worth more than $US60 billion. 2