How Banks Got Too Big to Fail

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The nation’s 10 largest financial institutions hold 54 percent of our total financial assets; in 1990, they held 20 percent. In the meantime, the number of banks has dropped from more than 12,500 to about 8,000. Some major mergers and acquisitions over the past 20 years:

(Click on the chart for a larger view)

This chart is part of Mother Jones’ coverage of the financial crisis, one year later.

Front page image: BofA: I-5 Design & Manufacture/Flickr; Citi: Korean Resource Center/Flickr; Chase: David Neubert/Flickr