Globalization of Financial Institutions: Evidence from Cross-Border BankingPerformance

摘要

We address the causes, consequences, and implications of the cross-borderconsolidation of financial institutions by reviewing several hundred studies, providing comparative international data, and estimating cross-border banking efficiency in France, Germany, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. during the 1990's. We find that, on average, domestic banks have higher profit efficiency than foreign banks. However, banks from at least one country (the U.S.) appear to operate with relatively high efficiency both at home and abroad. If these results continue to hold, they do no preclude successful international expansion by some financial firms, but they do suggest limits to global consolidation.