UNITED STATES v. CONNECTICUT NATIONAL BANK ET AL.
No. 73-767
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 23, 1974—Decided June 26, 1974
418 U.S. 656
George D. Reycraft argued the cause for appellees Connecticut National Bank et al. With him on the brief were John Boyer, Haven C. Roosevelt, and Richard G. Bell. Lee Loevinger argued the cause for appellee Comptroller of the Currency. With him on the brief were Robert Bloom and Charles H. McEnerney, Jr.
MR. JUSTICE POWELL delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case concerns the legality of a proposed consolidation of two nationally chartered commercial banks operating in adjoining regions of Connecticut. The United States brought a civil antitrust action challenging the
The banks desiring to consolidate, Connecticut National Bank (CNB) and First New Haven National Bank (FNH), have offices in contiguous areas in the southwestern portion of Connecticut. CNB maintains its headquarters in the town of Bridgeport, which is situated on the Long Island Sound approximately 60 miles from New York City. CNB is the fourth largest commercial bank in the State. At year-end 1972, it held 6.2% of the deposits in commercial banks in Connecticut. CNB operates 51 offices located in Bridgeport and nearby towns in the extreme southwest section of Connecticut.
FNH has its headquarters in the town of New Haven, approximately 19 miles to the northeast of Bridgeport along the Long Island Sound. FNH is the eighth largest commercial bank in Connecticut. At the end of 1972, it held 4.1% of commercial bank deposits in the State. FNH operates 22 bank offices in New Haven and surrounding towns.
In Connecticut as a whole at the end of 1971, the five largest commercial banks held 61% and the 10 largest commercial banks held 83% of the deposits in such banks in the State. Two large commercial banks based in Hartford, Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. of Hartford and Hartford National Bank, operate essentially statewide. At year-end 1972, they had 41% of the total commercial bank deposits held by Connecticut banks.
CNB and FNH both have offices and are in direct competition in a so-called “four-town area” located between Bridgeport and New Haven. The banks assured the District Court, however, that in implementing the consolidation they would divest themselves of a sufficient number of offices in the four-town area to render insignificant the degree of overlap of their areas of actual operation. The District Court held that this divestiture plan eliminated any antitrust difficulties presented by the merger of direct competitors. 362 F. Supp., at 268-270, 286. The United States has not pursued the point on appeal. Accordingly, the case has been presented to us strictly as a geographic market extension merger on the part of both banks. The proposed consolidation would join the banks under FNH‘s national charter (with headquarters in Bridgeport). It would have no effect on the number of banks operating in either the Bridgeport or New Haven area. In that posture, the case presents potential-competition issues similar to those raised in United States v. Marine Bancorporation, Inc., ante, p. 602.
The District Court rejected the Government‘s potential-competition arguments, relying on such factors as state-law restraints on de novo branching,1 the expan-
I
The District Court concluded that the appropriate “line of commerce” within the meaning of § 7 included both commercial banks and savings banks. 362 F. Supp., at 281. The court recognized that its conclusion departed from this Court‘s holdings in, e. g., United States v. Phillipsburg National Bank, 399 U. S. 350, 359-362 (1970), and United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, 374 U. S. 321, 356-357 (1963). But in the District Court‘s
Several factors led the District Court to the conclusions that “savings banks are in direct and substantial competition with commercial banks in providing product-services to the banking consumers in Connecticut . . . ,” and that “[t]he cold, hard realities of the situation are that savings and commercial banks are fierce competitors in this state.” Ibid. The court noted that under state law savings banks in the near future will be permitted to offer one of the traditional indicia of commercial banks, personal checking accounts. See
We are in complete agreement with the District Court that Phillipsburg National Bank and Philadelphia National Bank do not require a court to blind itself to economic realities. Similarly, we have no doubt on this record that savings banks and commercial banks in Connecticut are “fierce competitors,” see 362 F. Supp., at 280, to the degree that they offer identical or essentially fungible services. The District Court was also correct that “complete inter-industry competitive overlap need not be shown.” Continental Can Co., supra, at 457. As the Court declared in Continental Can, “we must recognize meaningful competition where it is found to exist.” 378 U. S., at 449. Nonetheless, we hold for several reasons that the District Court was mistaken in including both savings and commercial banks in the same product market for purposes of this case.
Two of the District Court‘s reasons may be dealt with briefly. The court erred as a matter of law in concluding that the absence of a “line of commerce” phrase in the Bank Merger Act of 1966 alters traditional standards under § 7 of the Clayton Act for defining the relevant product market in a bank merger case. United States v. Third National Bank, 390 U. S. 171, 182 n. 15 (1968). See Phillipsburg National Bank, 399 U. S., at 359-362. Moreover, the absence of significant competition from savings banks in Philadelphia National Bank, supra, and Phillipsburg National Bank, supra, is not determinative. The commercial banks in both of those cases faced significant competition from savings and loan associations and other credit institutions. See, e. g., 374 U. S., at 357 n. 34; United States v. Phillipsburg National Bank, 306 F. Supp. 645, 649 (NJ 1969). The Court in both instances nevertheless viewed the business of commercial banking as sufficiently distinct from other credit institutions to merit treatment as a separate “line of commerce” under § 7. Analogous distinctions, although perhaps not as sharply defined, are controlling here.
We believe that the District Court overestimated the degree of competitive overlap that in fact exists between savings banks and commercial banks in Connecticut. To be sure, there is a large measure of similarity between the services marketed by the two categories of banks.3 In
The Court declared in Phillipsburg National Bank, supra, at 360:
”Philadelphia Bank emphasized that it is the cluster of products and services that full-service banks offer that as a matter of trade reality makes commercial banking a distinct line of commerce. Commercial banks are the only financial institutions in which a wide variety of financial products and services—some unique to commercial banking and others not—are gathered together in one place. The clustering of financial products and services in banks facilitates convenient access to them for all banking customers. . . .” (Emphasis in original.)
From the vantage point of at least one significant consumer of bank services—the commercial enterprise—commercial banks in Connecticut offer a “cluster of products and services” that their savings bank counterparts do not. The facts of this case indicate that the differences in what commercial banks in the State can offer to that important category of bank customers are sufficient to establish commercial banking as a distinct line of commerce.
The District Court concluded that “meaningful competition” existed between commercial and savings banks
It is true that under state law savings banks soon will be able to provide some checking account services.
We do not say, and Phillipsburg National Bank, supra, and Philadelphia National Bank, supra, do not say, that in a case involving a merger of commercial banks a court may never consider savings banks and commercial banks as operating in the same line of commerce, no matter how similar their services and economic behavior. At some stage in the development of savings banks it will be unrealistic to distinguish them from commercial banks for purposes of the Clayton Act. In Connecticut, that point may well be reached when and if savings banks become significant participants in the marketing of bank services to commercial enterprises. But, in adherence to the tests set forth in our earlier bank merger cases, which we are constrained to follow, we hold that such a point has not yet been reached. Accordingly, on remand the District Court should treat commercial banking as the relevant product market.
II
The District Court ruled that the relevant geographic market, or “section of the country,” under § 7, is the State as a whole. 362 F. Supp., at 283. We think the District Court erred on this point for several reasons. If the State were the relevant geographic market, it would then be appropriate to analyze this not as a potential-competition case but as a direct-competition case involving the consolidation of two firms holding an aggregate market share of approximately 10%. Even if this figure is “shaded” by a factor of 10% to account for the influence of banks in New York, see id., at 260; Philadelphia National Bank, 374 U. S., at 364 n. 40, the consolidation of CNB and FNH would create a firm holding a 9% share of statewide commercial-bank deposits. Mergers between direct competitors producing smaller shares
The State cannot be the relevant geographic market, however, because CNB and FNH are not direct competitors on that basis (or for that matter on any other basis pertinent to this appeal). The two banks do not operate statewide, nor do their customers as a general rule utilize commercial banks on that basis. The offices of the two banks are restricted to adjoining sections of the southwest segment of Connecticut. Although the two banks presumably market a small percentage of their loans to large customers on a statewide or broader basis, it is undoubtedly true that almost all of their business originates locally. For example, “about 88% of CNB‘s total deposit business derive[s] from the towns in which CNB has offices.” 362 F. Supp., at 250. As the District Court noted in a finding that is inconsistent with its conclusion on the appropriate section of the country, “[c]ommon sense . . . would indicate that the relevant market areas of CNB and FNH generally coincide with where each has established branch offices.” Ibid.
As indicated by our opinion today in Marine Bancorporation, ante, p. 602, the relevant geographic market of the acquired bank is the localized area in which that bank is in significant, direct competition with other banks, albeit not the acquiring bank. This area must be defined in accordance with this Court‘s precedents in prior bank-merger cases. Yet the District Court‘s conclusion on this issue conflicts with Philadelphia National Bank, supra. The Court emphasized in that case:
“In banking, as in most service industries, convenience of location is essential to effective competition. Individuals and corporations typically confer the bulk of their patronage on banks in their
local community; they find it impractical to conduct their banking business at a distance. . . . The factor of inconvenience localizes banking competition as effectively as high transportation costs in other industries.” 374 U. S., at 358 (footnote and citations omitted).
In recognition of the local character of the great majority of commercial bank activities, Philadelphia National Bank indicated that the relevant geographic market in bank-merger cases must be drawn narrowly to encompass the area where “the effect of the merger on competition will be direct and immediate.” Id., at 357. Moreover, the geographic market must be delineated in a way that takes into account the local nature of the demand for most bank services. It “must be charted by careful selection of the market area in which the seller operates, and to which the purchaser can practicably turn for [alternatives] . . . .” Id., at 359 (citations, internal quotations, and italics omitted). Because the economic scale of separate categories of consumers of bank services will vary, a workable compromise must be struck “to delineate the area in which bank customers that are neither very large nor very small find it practical to do their banking business . . . .” Id., at 361.7
On remand the District Court must determine pursuant to the localized approach denoted above the geographic market in which CNB operates and to which the bulk of its customers may turn for alternative commercial bank services. It must do the same with regard to FNH, for this case presents the unusual fact situation of a consolidation of two banks, each with a history of de novo geographic expansion, rather than the acquisition of
We are not unaware of the difficulty of the assignment confronting the District Court. An element of “fuzziness would seem inherent in any attempt to delineate the relevant geographical market.” Philadelphia National Bank, supra, at 360 n. 37. The task is made especially taxing here by the fragmented character of the distribution of the banking offices of the two banks, especially CNB. Apparently because the Connecticut branching statute has created a checkerboard of “open” and “closed” towns, see n. 1, supra, CNB and FNH have not expanded in the past in a manner that produced readily definable, completely covered areas around the towns where they have their home offices. There is, for example, a gap consisting of four towns in the extreme southwest section of Connecticut in which CNB has no offices, although it has established offices in almost all of the surrounding towns in that part of the State. That gap presumably will have to be excluded from consideration on remand.
The difficulty of the responsibility imposed on the District Court with regard to defining the geographic markets of the two banks is ameliorated by several considerations. First, the burden of producing evidence on this subject is on the Government. The Government repeatedly notes that it is not required to define geographic markets by “metes and bounds,” citing United States v. Pabst Brewing Co., 384 U. S. 546, 549 (1966). To the extent that this means that such markets need not—indeed cannot—be defined with scientific precision, it is accurate. But it is nevertheless the Government‘s role to come forward with evidence delineating the rough approximation
Second, we affirm that portion of the District Court‘s judgment holding that the Government cannot rely, without more, on Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA‘s) as defining the geographic markets of the two banks. See 362 F. Supp., at 249-250, 281-282. SMSA‘s are prepared by the Office of Management and Budget to determine areas of economic and social integration, principally on the basis of the commuting patterns of residents.8 They are not defined in terms of banking criteria, and they were not developed as a tool for analyzing banking markets. Id., at 249. Exclusive reliance on SMSA‘s here may lead to inaccuracies. For example, as the District Court noted, only 57% of CNB‘s deposits originate from the Bridgeport SMSA. Id., at 250, 282. This is because CNB‘s offices extend to several areas outside the Bridgeport SMSA. The Bridgeport SMSA is relevant, if at all, only to the CNB offices located in Bridgeport, and even then it is at best a crude indicator. The same is true of the New Haven SMSA and the FNH offices located in the town of New Haven. In sum, although the Bridgeport and New Haven SMSA‘s may be helpful in defining the general metropolitan characteristics of southwest Connecticut, they are not sufficiently refined in terms of realistic commercial banking markets to satisfy the Government‘s burden. The Government must demonstrate more accurately than is possible solely with SMSA‘s the localized banking markets, or areas of significant competitive influence, surrounding the sites where CNB and FNH maintain their banking offices.9
On remand, the District Court must delineate the localized banking markets surrounding the sites where CNB and FNH maintain their bank offices. It must then evaluate the economically and legally feasible alternative methods of entry, if any, into those areas available to one bank or the other. In so doing, it should keep in mind the considerations outlined today in Marine Bancorporation, ante, p. 602.10
In conformity with its approach in Marine Bancorporation, the Government argues that the State as a whole, although not a banking market, is nonetheless a “section of the country” within the meaning of
We reject the Government‘s statewide approach here, as we did in Marine Bancorporation, ante, at 620. The Government‘s argument that “a geographic area need not be a banking market to be a section of the country . . .”13 is foreclosed by the precedents. Ante, at 620-622. Its theory of linked oligopolies appears to be as devoid of evidentiary support here as it was in Marine Bancorporation. Finally, its concern for any area of the State in which CNB or FNH “might” enter independently of the con-
The judgment is vacated and the case is remanded for further consideration consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, and MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Although I agree with Part I of the majority opinion, as to the relevant line of commerce, I dissent from that part of the opinion dealing with the determination of a relevant geographic market.
The Court holds that “the relevant geographic market of the acquired bank is the localized area in which that bank is in significant, direct competition with other banks, albeit not the acquiring bank,” relying on a statement to similar effect in United States v. Marine Bancorporation, Inc., ante, p. 602. Accordingly, the Court rejects the proposition, which the appellee banks accepted
There is certainly nothing in this Court‘s past cases on mergers under Clayton § 7 which requires this result. Even if Bridgeport and New Haven are relevant geographic markets, there can be more than one relevant geographic market in which to test the possible effects of a merger.
As I read the majority opinion, if one assumed that FNH and CNB were the two largest banks in Connecticut, and, although located in southwest Connecticut, both had the capability and interest to enter a concentrated banking market in northeast Connecticut, it would be improper for the Government to oppose their merger, since
I agree that the case should be remanded. As I understand the task of the District Court, once it has decided what the relevant geographic markets are, the case is to be analyzed in terms of the “wings theory” of potential competition enunciated in United States v. Falstaff Brewing Corp., 410 U. S. 526 (1973), and the deconcentration theory now accepted by this Court in Marine Bancorporation. As to these matters, I adhere to my views as stated in Marine Bancorporation.
* One of the principal witnesses presented by the appellee banks, Dr. Peck, analyzed the effect of this merger, and the removal of FNH as a potential competitor, along with CNB, on the various banking markets in the State.
Notes
There are 169 towns in Connecticut. The effect of the “home office protection” provision is to create a checkerboard of “open” and “closed” towns reflecting the location of the main offices of the banks operating in the State. State law forbids any bank that does not have its headquarters in Connecticut from operating banking offices within the State.
“Whose effect in any section of the country may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly, or which in any other manner would be in restraint of trade, unless . . . the anticompetitive effects of the proposed transaction are clearly outweighed in the public interest by the probable effect of the transaction in meeting the convenience and needs of the community to be served.”
“No corporation engaged in commerce shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital and no corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission shall acquire the whole or any part of the assets of another corporation engaged also in commerce, where in any line of commerce in any section of the country, the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.”
In Marine Bancorporation, ante, at 619, we affirmed the District Court‘s determination of the Spokane metropolitan area as the relevant geographic market. That holding was not an affirmation of SMSA‘s as banking markets; SMSA‘s were not at issue in that case. The Spokane metropolitan area was defined as the relevant geographic market in Marine Bancorporation because it is an insulated banking market, is comparatively small by geographic standards in the Western States, contains all the banking offices of the target bank, and is the area from which that bank draws some 90% of its deposit accounts.