Washington, D.C. — Tom Quaadman, Executive Vice President, Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued the following statement today regarding Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Senate Banking Subcommittee hearing on bank mergers.
“The default opposition to virtually any and all bank mergers expressed by Senator Warren will, if turned into public policy, only risk more bank failures and limit credit for America’s small businesses. Properly structured mergers can improve the capital of financial institutions helping them weather downturns. It can also help expand the availability of credit, especially to small businesses, in otherwise constricted environments. Senator Warren’s hostility to mergers of any kind is, in itself, a risk to America’s financial stability.”
As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen herself noted in a recent Wall Street Journal interview, “We certainly don’t want overconcentration and we’re pro-competition, but that doesn’t mean no” mergers. “We have more banks, relatively speaking, in the United States than almost any country of which I’m aware.”
More information about the impact of bank mergers on American consumers is available at the U.S. Chamber’s website.
