Finance and Economics Discussion Series

Banking Market Definition: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances

Dean F. Amel, Arthur B. Kennickell, and Kevin B. Moore
2008-35

Abstract: This paper uses data from the triennial waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances from 1992 to 2004 to examine changes in the use of financial services with implications for the definition of banking markets. Despite powerful technological and regulatory shifts over this period, households' banking markets overall remained largely local--the median distance to a provider of financial services remained under four miles. However, there has been rapid growth in the use of non-depository financial institutions over the period, particularly non-local ones. This increase occurred across a wide variety of demographic and other household classifications. The evidence on the clustering of financial services is mixed. Households showed a slightly greater tendency to buy multiple banking services from their primary provider of such services in 2004 than in 1992, while they also became much more likely to procure services from firms that were not their primary provider.

Keywords: Survey of Consumer Finances, banking markets, household finances, antitrust policy