This is an important book not only for executives engaged in government-relations work throughout the financial services industry, and for those engaged in marketing and strategic planning, but also for public policy analysts in the private and public sectors.

Dr. Rose opens his book with an overview of the U.S. trend towards a consolidated banking system similar to those in other industrialized nations, particularly Canada, Great Britain, and Germany. He identifies causes of this movement toward consolidation, attributable to governmental interventions and the exigencies of the private sector marketplace.

He reviews the long history of federal and state restrictions against interstate banking and then explains how laws passed in the 1990s are permitting giant nationwide banking companies to develop. What does this mean for the public, bankers, and investors? Less than what people have hoped for. Dr. Rose warns that many of the benefits expected from interstate banking will probably be nonexistent or at best meager.