| Passage 1 Larger banks in large cities often specialize in particular ancillary services in addition to the bank deposit services they supply. They may have foreign branches in order to provide banking services in particular foreign countries. Large banks may sell consumer credit card services; that is, they allow individual banks to join their credit card network. They may be brokers in the federal funds markets, a market for short-term loans in which commercial banks participate. Banks may specialize in handling trust agreements. Large banks often provide many of these services for their depositors as well as selling these ancillary services to other banks. This provision of services to other banks is called correspondent banking. The degree of competition in the market for banking services may be related to the number of depository intermediaries in a particular locality. If there is one commercial bank and no thrifts in a small town in a remote area, most of the residents may deposit their funds in the local bank. If there are no financial intermediaries offering similar services, such as business loans, the local bank supplies most of these loans. In most areas, other financial intermediaries and nearby banks compete for loan business. Larger loans made to larger local businesses may not be supplied solely by banks in the local area. Unlike the cost of transporting physical property, the cost of transporting money by check is negligible. The capital market, the market for borrowing funds, cannot easily be subdivided by geographical areas. This consideration makes the measurement of competition for large-loan business in a given geographical area a difficult problem. However, in some states one or several bank holding companies own a significant number of banks in the state. This subject is discussed subsequently. |