The UBS-SBC Merger and Competition in the Swiss Retail Banking Sector

Dominik Egli and Bertrand Rime
Additional contact information
Dominik Egli: Schweizerische Nationalbank and Universität Bern
Bertrand Rime: Banque Nationale Suisse, http://www.snb.ch/

No 00.02, Working Papers from Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee

Abstract: We address two questions about the impact of the UBS-SBC merger: (i) How will the concentration in the Swiss retail banking market change, and (ii) what are the expected consequences for the consumers. The answer to the first question is based on a comparison of Herfindahl and C3-indices in 1997 as they actually have been to as they could have been if the banks already had been merged. For both types of indices, and for the two product groups considered (loans and mortgages, savings deposits) the impact of the merger is huge. To answer the second question, we have examined how concentration interfered with savings deposits and mortgages interest rates in the previous decade, between the cantons and over time. The results obtained for savings deposits indicate that the structure performance hypothesis dominates for large cantons, while the efficiency hypothesis and the contestable market hypotheses cannot be rejected for small cantons. For mortgages, the contestable market hypotheses clearly dominates for large cantons, while for small cantons evidence is split between the efficiency hypothesis and the contestable market hypothesis.

Pages: 26 pages
Date: 1999-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ind
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.szgerzensee.ch/fileadmin/Dateien_Anwend ... g_papers/wp-0002.pdf Full text (application/pdf)
None

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:szg:worpap:0002

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Studienzentrum Gerzensee, Postfach 21, 3115 Gerzensee

The price is Free.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee Studienzentrum Gerzensee, Postfach 21, 3115 Gerzensee.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by library ().