摘要：This paper examines the comparative performance of small U.S. commercial banks ($100million to $300million) in assets with medium size ($1billion-$5billion) and large (greater than $5billion) for the period of 1997-2002. In view of the banking system deregulation and bank consolidation in the United States,it is necessary to constantly evaluate the performance of the various categories of banks to document the possible impact of these policy measures. We use profit efficiency (PROFEFF),return-on-assets (ROA),interest income,non interest income and loan loss reserve as criteria for this comparison. We find that between 1997 and 1999,small banks were more profit efficient (PROFEFF) than large banks but less than medium- size banks. Since 1999,the PROFEFF of all sizes of banks has been on the decline but the PROFEFF of small banks declined more than that of large and medium-size banks. The ROA for all the banks under evaluation declined between 2000 and 2002. Small banks suffered the largest decline. An examination of the trend in net interest income as a percentage of average assets (NII) for the three groups of banks reveals that small banks’ NII is greater than that of large banks for the entire period. And in contrast, small banks have the lowest level of non-interest income as a percentage of average assets (NONII). It is apparent that the small banks are vulnerable to increased competition offered by deregulation,technological advances,e-commerce and negative economic situation such as the current recession. These results suggest the survival of small U.S. commercial banks is in jeopardy. Since these observations result from the present policy of consolidation and bank system deregulation there is need for the Reserve Banks revisit of this policy stance.
