Finance and politics in the USA: From National City Bank to Citigroup — An American bank or a world bank?
Finance and politics in the USA: From National City Bank to Citigroup — An American bank or a world bank?

Summary/Abstract: The banking landscape in the USA has been shaped by various political and economic forces throughout the years, and the interaction between banks and the state has, in the case of Citibank, been particularly close. The role of globalization, the increased number of mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector in the USA have in the last decade clearly contributed to the blurring of frontiers between domestic and international boundaries in financial operations. Citigroup has managed to hold both a strong local consumer base and a wide international network, which is present on a number of emerging markets and even micro-finance development today. The study reveals that interactions between finance and politics have played a significant role in explaining the idiosyncrasy of the American banking landscape, but one may wonder whether finance could have, on the domestic political scene in the USA, managed to outweigh politics or rather to free itself from political considerations.

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