Epilogue The Future of U.S. Commercial Banking

Abstract

As restrictions on scope and powers were eased in the 1980s, banks morphed into a new kind of financial services entity. The modern U.S. bank is no longer a commercial bank, an investment bank, or a merchant bank. Its main activities involve managing and financing mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; financing equipment leasing; financing the expansion of businesses; providing cash and transaction management services; and asset management. For many of the top global firms, an increasingly greater share of income comes from trading for their own account as well as with each other, and less from fees that clients pay for services. And some traditional client services are effectively subsidized by cash and asset management services.