The reality is that as more banks merge together, there are fewer overall banks, and thus each new bank lost is a greater percentage of the total. Overall, the percentage of the total number of banks that are lost each year continues to be fairly consistent. That number is around 4% of the total, and that means that the large banks are continuing to swallow up any of the remaining community banks that they can find. Thus, it is best to still consider ourselves to be in a period of banking sector consolidation.
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