Bob Diamond, founding partner and CEO at Atlas Merchant Capital, calls regional banks a "really, really strong sector of the banks," but sees consolidation over the next two to three years bringing the total number of firms to "closer to 1,000 or 1,500." Diamond also discusses credit concerns among the banks and explains the factors he sees that have created "a great environment for banks." ...

Some big deal news out of the financial sector this morning. Fifth Third Bank announcing plans to acquire Comica for $10.9% billion, poised to create the ninth largest US bank with roughly $288 billion in assets. Joining us now with his reaction is Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets co-head of global financials research.Cincinnati based Fifth Third get gets a lot bigger. Gerard, is this a good deal. >> Yes, it is.It's a good deal, Sarah, because when you look at the metrics, the financial metrics, the deal ...

America's banking industry is shrinking. Community banks are struggling. We had about 7000 community banks right after the crisis.Now we've got about 4000. That's a huge decline. We see that those local banks are really disappearing.It's really hard for them to compete with the very largest banks, who are essentially subsidized by the public because they are seen as too big to fail. The four largest banks in the U.S.--JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup--hold an increasingly large per ...

This deal can be seen as quite an expression of confidence in the UK and the UK economy. A lot of businesses recently have been speaking out against recent tax rises on employing staff and various other measures. How optimistic are you feeling about the UK then as a result of this deal.Good morning and thank you for having me on on the programme again. We already have a very significant presence in the UK. It's our largest balance sheet in all of the countries we operate. We operate the largest balance shee ...

Start us then with the story around Santander TSB Tell us more about the deal and how significant this could be in terms of reshaping the UK's banking landscape. Yes, a significant deal in banking in the U.K., just another one in the finance space across Europe this year. Right.I mean, we've seen a lot of consolidation or potential consolidation moves in banking in different countries. And this is the last one, a very important one for Santander, because it emphasizes the importance of their growth strategy ...