That could add pressure on the weakest banks to merge, seek government help, or scale back their activities.
Competitors followed suit, forcing many parts makers to merge and seek additional customers.
As part of the restructuring, three or four major banks will be forced to merge or seek foreign partners.
In 1909, 1951 and again in 1964 (the same year the North Western and Great Western announced their intentions to merge) the CGW sought engineering proposals to reroute their trackage around the bore, to daylight the tunnel, or to completely rebuild and improve it.
Merged firms seek to cut costs, and often end up spending less on exploration than they did separately.
But when AOL and Time Warner merged in 2000, Bronfman sought to link up with a big telecom partner.
Both AT&T and Sprint have sought to merge with T-Mobile in the past.
She has (twice) unsuccessfully sought to merge CBS and Viacom, the two media companies that her family controls.
Doug Parker, the chief executive of US Airways, has long sought to merge his company with another major airline.
Lawmakers have sought to merge the two agencies for decades, only to scuttle the plans in the face of opposition.
