The incredible shrinking community bank

by. Henry Meier

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that community banks are slowly fading away. In an excellent analysis of the trend, the paper reports that the number of banking institutions in the U.S. has dwindled to its lowest level since at least the Great Depression. The number of banks has now shrunk to 6,891 and with the exception of one brave — or some may argue, delusioned — group of investors, no one is applying to form new community banks these days.

I’m not highlighting these statistics to disparage community banks. Rather, I’m posting them because the trend highlighted by the article is so similar to that taking place in the credit union industry. For instance, the decline in bank numbers from their peak of 18,000 “has come almost entirely in the form of exits by banks with less than $100 million in assets. . . with the bulk occurring as a result of mergers, consolidations or failures.”

The credit union industry has long recognized that the small institution is fading away. The trend is impossible to miss. But it is one thing to spot a trend, it’s quite another to come to a consensus about what, if anything, to do about it.

Simply put, how much should the industry really care that small credit unions are fading away? I argued in a recent blog for CU Insight (shameless plug) that the decreasing number of credit unions is, in part, a reflection of regulatory overkill. But, the regulatory burden is growing and likely to continue to do so. Only large and growing credit unions are going to have the economy of scale necessary to absorb these costs.

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