Economies of Scale in Correspondent Banking: Note
研究代理行服务中的规模经济，发现为更多代理行服务的银行因短期需求余额更稳定而降低交易成本，解释了代理行业务高度集中的现象。
Correspondent banking is a highly concentrated industry. For each region in which respondent banks shop for services from local correspondents, large shares of demand balances due to other banks are held by the three or four largest correspondent banks. For other categories of deposit liabilities, the shares at the three or four largest banks are substantially lower. The relatively high concentration in correspondent banking may reflect greater economies of scale in offering correspondent banking services than other banking services. Most studies of economies of scale in commercial banking analyze the relation between production costs and the scale of banking operations. Such studies do not indicate economies of scale that are unique to correspondent banking. Respondent banks demand the same types of services as those demanded by other bank customers; therefore, the relation between costs of production and scale of services supplied should be the same whether the services are offered to respondent banks or to other customers. This study investigates economies of scale in terms of a relation between the scale of a correspondent bank's services to respondents and the short-run variability in its demand balances due to banks. The following condition tends to create economies of scale in correspondent banking: a bank that serves as correspondent for a large number of respondents has greater short-run stability in its total demand balances due to banks and, therefore, lower transaction costs in managing its reserve position than if it served fewer respondents. 1