The recent deregulation in the financial industry in both the EU and U.S. has sparked a wave of mergers within each region and country. Furthermore, the increase in globalization and international integration has been encouraging banks to expand across borders. This study provides an analysis of EU, U.S., and Inter U.S. - EU bank mergers during the period 2002 - 2005. The hypothesis is that recent inter U.S. - EU bank mergers provide positive shareholder wealth creation around the announcement date and increase efficiency (measured via return on assets) post-merger.
