GEOGRAPHY OF THE BANKING SECTOR IN THE USA AND RUSSIA: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON MATERIALS OF THE 1980s-2010s
In the article, geographies of banking activity in the USA and the Russian Federation are compared on a number of key parameters. The special attention paid to this particular sector is explained not only by its huge influence on the entire economy, but also by taxing and other advantages that some cities receive with the appearance of large financial companies in them. The choice of the two countries as objects for comparison was related in particular to their commensurate population numbers, a wide range of internal economic and geographical differences, federal arrangements, and some similar features in financial history of relatively recent decades. The research is based primarily on an array of statistical data that are available on the official websites of the Bank of Russia, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the U.S. Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER). The main series of open statistics go into the past until 1978 for the United States and 1998 for Russia, while on additional directions it is possible to dive into much deeper history. The initial statistical data, after systematization and processing by various mathematical tools, allowed carrying out a comparative analysis of the banking geography of the two countries on such characteristics as numbers of credit corporations, discrepancy between cities in terms of the volume of activity of local banks, intensity of rank transfers among the leading centres in the industry, and impact of population numbers and administrative positions of cities on their banking achievements. The study showed that common market factors lead to similarities between the USA and Russia in such aspects as, for example, the change in the number of corporations and the dynamics of inter-city stratification. On the other hand, Russia dramatically differs from the USA in the higher degree of resource concentration in the national financial metropolis, as well as in the pronounced superiority of regional administrative centres over their surroundings.