In fact, when viewing the data in a national perspective, the number of banks per local market has been quite stable over time in both urban and rural areas. There may be two factors that explain this outcome. First, many bank mergers combine firms that do not operate in the same local area, so they don’t reduce the number of competitors in any market.
We also decided that we would not reinvest the proceeds of maturing government bonds. This means that our bond holdings and balance sheet will decline as bonds mature. Our balance sheet will also decline substantially in 2023 and 2024 as banks repay the funding made available under the Term Funding Facility.