Mega-Risk

THE celebrated mega-merger between Citicorp and Travelers will—assuming that Congress and the Federal Reserve approve the merger application—create a mind-boggling $70-billion financial conglomerate that proposes to combine commercial banking (Citibank), investment banking and securities dealing (Salomon Smith Barney), and insurance and retirement-saving services (Travelers). All this would bring $700 billion of assets together under one roof, making the new CitiGroup the largest financial company in the world—and a huge new threat to American taxpayers.

The Citicorp-Travelers deal is part of a larger movement toward consolidation in the financial industry. Bank America and NationsBank are proposing to merge their $570 billion in assets, and Banc One and First Chicago NBD have a $230-billion regional proposal.

About the Author

Larry Kudlow

Larry Kudlow is the author of JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity, written with Brian Domitrovic.

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THE celebrated mega-merger between Citicorp and Travelers will—assuming that Congress and the Federal Reserve approve the merger application—create a mind-boggling $70-billion financial conglomerate that proposes to combine commercial banking (Citibank), investment banking and securities dealing (Salomon Smith Barney), and insurance and retirement-saving services (Travelers). All this would bring $700 billion of assets together under one roof, making the new CitiGroup the largest financial company in the world—and a huge new threat to American taxpayers.

The Citicorp-Travelers deal is part of a larger movement toward consolidation in the financial industry. Bank America and NationsBank are proposing to merge their $570 billion in assets, and Banc One and First Chicago NBD have a $230-billion regional proposal.