'Too Big To Fail' Explained
I've written quite a few columns about various aspects of the financial condition of U.S. banks, mostly concentrated on the money centers JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC). While preparing a series based on fourth-quarter call reports for U.S. banks, it occurred to me an overview of U.S. banking would be a good reference column.
At the end of 2012, there were about 6,500 banks operating in the U.S. with about 97,900 total branches. Each quarter for the past three years, the number of banks has declined at the rate of about one bank every other day. There are about 622 fewer banks today than three years ago, with about 2,000 fewer branches....345 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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