However, the extent of exploitable scale and scope economies might be smaller than commonly thought, and efficiency gains resulting from better management might be elusive in large, complex institutions. The direct costs arising from M&As can take several forms: consolidating different organisations is not an easy task and may lead to inefficiencies. There are also external costs. These can take several forms.
First, for some financial products (in particular, deposits and small business lending) markets are mainly local. Therefore, M&As involving banks with large market shares might cause adverse price changes, harming consumers.