If you are planning a merger or an acquisition, you should make a new St. Louis Fed web site must reading. The site, http://CASSIDI.stlouisfed.org, went live in August with the goal of serving as a one-stop shop for information on banking competition.
"One of the appealing features of the site is that it includes information on institutions and banking markets for the entire United States," said Adam Zaretsky, an economist in the St. Louis Fed's Research division, who led the effort to get CASSIDI® (Competitive Analysis and Structure Source Instrument for Depository Institutions) started. "This is the only web site where the public can get banking competition information packaged in this convenient way for free." CASSIDI® helps bankers:
Other important CASSIDI® features include banking market maps, which enable users to zoom in to see what market a city is located in or zoom out to see what market(s) a county is located in; and the ability to select individual branches as targets in potential transactions.