Authors: Linda S. Goldberg and April Meehl
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Staff Reports
Complexity in Large U.S. Banks
Number 880
February 2019 Revised September 2019
February 2019 Revised September 2019
JEL classification: F32, G11, G20
The structural complexity of the largest U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs) has been changing. Using a range of measures of organizational, business and geographic complexity, we show that large U.S. BHCs remain very complex. Organizational complexity has declined the most since the global financial crisis, as the average number of legal entities within US large BHCs has fallen. By contrast, the multiple industries spanned by legal entities within the BHCs have shifted more than they have declined, especially within the financial sector. Nonfinancial entities within US BHCs still tilt heavily toward real estate related businesses and span numerous other industries. Fewer large BHCs have global affiliates and the geographic span of the most complex has declined. Locations with favorable tax treatment still attract a significant share of the foreign bank and nonbank entities while informationally opaque locations are losing their share of such entities.
Author Disclosure Statement(s)
Linda Goldberg
The author declares that she has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
April Meehl
The author declares that she has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
The author declares that she has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
April Meehl
The author declares that she has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
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