Open Access Journal Article

Does Rocky Mountain Credit Union Competition still Affect Commercial Bank Interest Rates?

by Thomas M. Fullerton a,* orcid ,  Robert J. Tokle b ,  Bryce Jones c  and  Steven L. Fullerton d
a
Department of Economics & Finance, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, USA
b
Department of Economics, Idaho State University, Pocatello, USA
c
Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade, Denver, USA
d
Border Region Modeling Project, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
JRE  2023 2(1):9; https://doi.org/10.58567/jre02010004
Received: 22 July 2023 / Accepted: 31 July 2023 / Published Online: 21 September 2023
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Abstract

Historically, increased credit union competition in Idaho and Montana has caused commercial banks to offer higher deposit rates to savers and lower loan rates to borrowers. Data are collected for the second quarter of 2018 to examine whether that pattern still holds true. Unlike prior studies, empirical results indicate that credit union competition no longer exerts statistically reliable impacts on deposit rates or loan rates in this northern Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Potential contributing factors include bank and thrift consolidation in recent years, the low interest rate environment prevailing during the late 2010s, and greater emphasis on non-interest forms of intermediary competition in the banking markets that comprise this regional economy.

Keywords: Regional banking; Interest rates; Financial intermediary competition;
Copyright: © 2023 by Fullerton, Tokle, Jones and Fullerton. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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ACS Style
Fullerton, T. M.; Tokle, R. J.; Jones, B.; Fullerton, S. L. Does Rocky Mountain Credit Union Competition still Affect Commercial Bank Interest Rates?. Journal of Regional Economics, 2023, 2, 9. https://doi.org/10.58567/jre02010004
AMA Style
Fullerton T M, Tokle R J, Jones B, Fullerton S L. Does Rocky Mountain Credit Union Competition still Affect Commercial Bank Interest Rates?. Journal of Regional Economics; 2023, 2(1):9. https://doi.org/10.58567/jre02010004
Chicago/Turabian Style
Fullerton, Thomas M.; Tokle, Robert J.; Jones, Bryce; Fullerton, Steven L. 2023. "Does Rocky Mountain Credit Union Competition still Affect Commercial Bank Interest Rates?" Journal of Regional Economics 2, no.1:9. https://doi.org/10.58567/jre02010004
APA style
Fullerton, T. M., Tokle, R. J., Jones, B., & Fullerton, S. L. (2023). Does Rocky Mountain Credit Union Competition still Affect Commercial Bank Interest Rates?. Journal of Regional Economics, 2(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.58567/jre02010004

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