The Small-Mart Revolution

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threeAMAZING SHRINKING MACHINES

Paleontologists millions of years hence might describe our time as the Era of the Gigantic Bankasaurs. Their digs might turn up fragments from 1998, when Citicorp took over Travelers, Bank One nabbed First Chicago NBD, and NationsBank gobbled up Bank of America (while assuming the latter’s name).¹ Or they might find signs of Wells Fargo combining with Norwest, or of Bank of America spending $47 billion to acquire FleetBoston Financial in 2003. All these fossilized remains would suggest that only the biggest creatures could survive.

Well, not quite. Despite all the hoopla, researchers at the Federal Reserve in Minneapolis have quietly concluded that “after banks reach a fairly modest size [about $100 million ...