Because of the importance of community banks as a source of small business lending and other retail services, we have explored this question but do not yet have any definitive answers. We considered the possibility that underlying demographic characteristics were driving the observed changes in the number of banks in a local market area.
Notably, this is in the areas relating to the balance between inward versus outward-looking industrialisation options, land economy and management, governance and accountability frameworks of institutions, domestic resources mobilisation and allocative efficiency, capital markets development and skills transformation, among others.