Financial Disintermediation

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Disintermediation refers to: (1) the investing of funds that would normally have been placed in a bank or other financial institution (financial intermediaries) directly into investment instruments issued by the ultimate users of the funds. Investors and borrowers transact business directly and thereby bypass banks or other financial intermediaries. (2) The elimination of intermediaries between the first case providers of capital and the ultimate users of capital, withdrawal of funds from financial intermediaries such as banks, thrifts, and life insurance companies in order to invest directly with ultimate users.

In America, most mutual savings banks are located in the Northeast, and are owned by their depositors and borrowers. A mutual savings bank does not issue capital stock. Profits are distributed to the owner/customers in proportion to the business they do with the institution.

The Mutual Savings Bank Crisis of the 1980s was the first of the banking crises addressed by the FDIC in the 80s. The crisis was brought on by new options in the financial services market that caused disintermediation. In order to rescue the mutual savings industry, the FDIC was forced to experiment with a number of different regulatory attempts. Many mutual savings banks including Richard Parsons's Dime Savings Bank were forced to submit to assisted mergers and demutualization. The mutual savings crisis management served as a training ground for the Savings & Loan and Commercial Banking Crises.

While there has been a general trend toward bank disintermediation and a greater role for financial markets in many countries, the pace has differed and there are still important differences across financial systems. The results support the view that these differences in financial structures do affect how households and firms behave over the economic cycle.

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