Industry Consolidation in Financial Services
2 December 2014
Stephen Greer
Celent recently released two reports looking at the state of banks and credit unions: And Then There Were None: The Disappearance of Community Banksand Catch CU: The Ongoing Evolution of the Credit Union Market. The analysis within each report shows a clear trend towards industry consolidation. The number of commercial banks in the US is declining rapidly, from 11,462 at the end of 1992 to 5,809 in 2014, while credit unions in the US went from 10,316 in 2000 to 6,491 in 2014. As the industry consolidates, the majority of institutions disappearing are disproportionately coming from the lower tiers. For banks, the point at which institutions see rapid decline is around $300 million in assets and below. For credit unions, that number is around $50 million and below. The figures below provide a broad summary view of what´s happening in each industry. For every asset tier, the CAGR for inflation-adjusted deposit and institution growth is charted along with the difference between the two. Asset tiers with a negative difference between the growth of deposits and institutions are declining on a per institution basis. This is an effective summary when assessing the health of a tier. 
Banking is obviously becoming more complex, and competing is no longer a matter of opening a branch, setting up an ATM, and accepting deposits. The past 10 years have seen the rise of internet banking, bill pay, know your customer (KYC), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance, mobile banking, consumer and business remote deposit capture, branch capture, and much more. Most small institutions don´t have the resources to stay on top of it all, and the requirements to “keep the lights on” leave pockets dry for modern customer facing applications and services that have become crucial to growing deposits. Is the consolidation good for the industry? What role will small banks and credit unions play in the future? Is further consolidation inexorable, or will the industry soon meet a healthy equilibrium? Feel free to comment.
Banking is obviously becoming more complex, and competing is no longer a matter of opening a branch, setting up an ATM, and accepting deposits. The past 10 years have seen the rise of internet banking, bill pay, know your customer (KYC), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance, mobile banking, consumer and business remote deposit capture, branch capture, and much more. Most small institutions don´t have the resources to stay on top of it all, and the requirements to “keep the lights on” leave pockets dry for modern customer facing applications and services that have become crucial to growing deposits. Is the consolidation good for the industry? What role will small banks and credit unions play in the future? Is further consolidation inexorable, or will the industry soon meet a healthy equilibrium? Feel free to comment.