Figure 2 shows that the number of bank and thrift organizations--that is, holding companies and independent institutions--has fallen by more than half since the early 1980s, when  2  BIS Review 30/2006  states began to dismantle restrictions on geographic expansion.
Much of this decline in the number of bank and thrift organizations is due to mergers and acquisitions, although some is also due to failures. 3 Although consolidation is often a mechanism for eliminating excess capacity from an industry, such does not appear to be the case for the U.S. banking industry.