BANKING

Bank Mergers in ‘80s Failed to Cut Costs, Study Says: Big U.S. bank mergers in the mid-1980s apparently brought little or no significant cost savings for the institutions, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Proponents of U.S. financial industry consolidation argue that mergers are needed to cut overhead and make American banks more competitive with their giant Japanese rivals. In fact, the study said banks’ non-interest expenses as a percent of assets increased in the four years after a merger from the rates in the two years before the typical deal.