NEW YORK, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Escalating losses among regional and smaller U.S. banks could prompt a wave of bank mergers, banking experts said.
As opposed to a failures among huge, internationally known banks, the demise of a small bank will not include "the shock and awe factor," industry analyst Nancy Bush told The New York Times. However, "small and midsize banks are up to their eyeballs in commercial real estate related to residential development and business loans," Bush said.
"We are going to see a reckoning with how bad that got," she said.
Bank analyst Gerard Cassidy said 200 to 300 of the nation's smaller banks may be forced to join forces with other banks in the next year, the Times reported Friday.
While a small portion of the nation's 8,400 banks, it is still a sharp escalation from the 25 bank failures of 2008, the Times said.
"If some of these guys are going to be weakened, they should be acquired," said bank consultant Bert Ely.
"Regulators should really push the weak guys to do a deal," he said.
