The Determinants of Bank Rates in Local Consumer Lending Markets: Comparing Market and Institution-Level Results‪.‬

1. Introduction With the exception of a few very recent studies, the sizeable literature on the impact of market structure in banking markets (1) has ignored the potential competitive role played by credit unions. This is surprising, since the continuing consolidation of the financial services industry in recent years has naturally raised concerns about competitive effects and credit unions would seem to be a likely source of market discipline. (2) This paper explores these issues using both market and firm data.