And I can find no empirical support for any benefits for combining banking and commerce based on experience abroad. Take risk diversification. Do we really believe that in the day of stock index mutual funds, options on individual stocks, and evolving credit derivatives that any firm must own another in order to diversify its risks in virtually any way it cares to do so?
I think not. If diversification of asset return risk were our only goal, financial modernization would be easy. How about synergies in crossselling? Maybe.