Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/19745 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper Series 2 No. 2005,12
Publisher: 
Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
German banks experienced a merger wave throughout the 1990s. However, the success of bank mergers remains a continuous matter of debate. In this paper we suggest a taxonomy as how to evaluate post-merger performance on the basis of cost efficiency (CE). We categorise mergers a success that fulfill simultaneously two criteria. First, merged institutes must exhibit CE levels above the average of non-merging banks. Second, banks must exhibit CE changes between merger and evaluation year above efficiency changes of non-merging banks. We employ this taxonomy to characterise (successful) mergers in terms of various key-performance and structural indicators and investigate the implications for three important policy issues. Our main conclusions are twofold. First, approximately every second merger is a success. Second, the margin of success is narrow, as the CE differential between merging and non-merging banks is one percentage point.
Subjects: 
Banks mergers
regulation
distress
cost efficiency
Germany
JEL: 
G34
G33
G28
G21
L44
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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