The Local Impact of Bank Mergers on Small Business Lending: A Baltimore Example

The relocation of BB&T’s and SunTrust Bank’s headquarters from Winston-Salem and Atlanta to Charlotte will undoubtedly have an effect on those markets, but how will the other 78 markets where the banks have overlapping branch operations fare? As a follow on to work we have done over the past two years to study trends in small business lending in Baltimore City, we looked specifically at the small business lending performance of these two banks in this single market.