To be sure, the very largest U.S. banking organizations account for the lion’s share of banking assets. Still, no one institution controls more than 6 percent of total domestic banking assets in the United States. This highly decentralized, highly diverse banking structure is almost certainly the direct result of our market economy itself.
Indeed, it is revealing that the first edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations was published in 1776, the year of the birth of our nation. Our market-driven economy, founded on Smith’s principle of “natural liberty” in economic choice, and the banking structure that evolved within that economy, have proved to be remarkably resilient.