The effect of regulations on the banking sector is a key question for financial intermediation. This paper provides evidence that merger control regulation, although not directly targeted at the banking sector, has substantial economic effects on bank mergers. Based on an extensive sample of European countries, we show that target announcement premia increased by up to 16 percentage points for mergers involving control shifts after changes in merger legislation, consistent with a market expectation of increased profitability. These effects go hand-in-hand with a reduction in the propensity for mergers to create banks that are too-big-to-fail in their country.

中文翻译：

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更严格的合并法规对银行并购的影响：“大失败”和“竞争”

法规对银行业的影响是金融中介的关键问题。本文提供的证据表明，尽管并购控制法规没有直接针对银行业，但对银行并购具有重大的经济影响。根据大量欧洲国家的样本，我们显示，在合并法规变更后，涉及控制权转移的合并目标公告溢价提高了16个百分点，这与市场预期的获利能力一致。这些影响与减少合并的倾向减少了，合并的倾向是在其国家建立太大而不能倒闭的银行。