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Notes and Papers

TCH Study Assesses Economics of Large Banks

By TCH Research

The Clearing House Association released a fact-based study on the economics of large banks. The empirical study reveals that the 26 largest U.S. banks provide an estimated $50 to $110 billion in unique economic value annually, with direct beneficiaries including consumers, companies and governments. This value comes in the form of economies of scale, the broad scope of products and services that large banks provide, and the spread of banking innovation. Our research also finds that: (i) banks larger than $500 billion in assets account for over half of this amount, (ii) the belief that marginal benefits for services performed by banks drops off above the $50-billion-asset range is false, and (iii) the majority of benefits detailed in this study can only be provided by large banks.