Banking mergers: The case to replace the 1995 banking merger guide hnes—part II: Market definition issues

Significant changes on the horizon in how the Department of Justice Antitrust Division evaluates mergers in the banking industry will materially affect the types of mergers that will be challenged and the advice attorneys give to their banking clients. The current set of banking-specific merger guidelines, published in 1995, have long fallen out of ¿late, andare no longer consistent with economics best principles contained in the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines. After recent merger reviews highlighted problems with the banking guidelines, the Division requested public comments on how it might revise its current approach to banking merger review analysis. In the first part of this two-part article, which appeared in the March 2021 issue o / T h e Banking L a w Journal, the author introduced the topic and commented on the guidance generally. This second part of the article comments on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index Threshold, relevant product and geographic markets, rural versus urban markets, non-traditional banks, and the de minimis exception, and offers conclusions.