Never mind that thousands of banks have been bought up in the past decade. The market is still too crowded. So big and midsize banks will continue to get bigger by swallowing up smaller ones. Megamergers are always possible, but small, regional banks are the target of choice to pump growth—which is slowing as interest rates rise and as the mortgage business cools. "It's a consolidating industry," says Jackie Reeves, a senior analyst at Ryan Beck & Co., a Livingston (N.J.) investment bank and brokerage specializing in financial services. "There are too many players."
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