The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced today that it is seeking public comments into whether the division should revise the 1995 Bank Merger Competitive Review guidelines (“Banking Guidelines”) to reflect emerging trends in the banking and financial services sector and modernize its approach to bank merger review under the antitrust laws. Today’s announcement is part-and-parcel of the division’s broader efforts and increased focus on protecting competition in the financial markets and follows the recent remarks and announcement by Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Makan Delrahim, concerning the realignment of commodities at the division.
“Innovative emerging technologies are disrupting traditional banking models and introducing new competitive elements to the financial sector,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim. “As part of the division’s increased attention to modernizing our competitive analysis of financial services markets, we are examining whether the 1995 Banking Guidelines need updating to reflect our evolving economy.”
The federal antitrust laws generally apply to financial institutions in the same way as to other economic sectors. Special procedures, however, apply to the competitive review of bank mergers. The relevant bank regulatory agency must approve any bank merger application following a concurrent competitive review conducted by the division. Historically, the initial review of the
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