Looking at that chart...unremarked is the 1991 $1.9 billion merger of Manufacturers Hanover with Chemical...it's more a commentary on the reality than the chart, a $1.9 billion bank merger doesn't make the cut as being important enough in the current post-Glass–Steagall "too big to fail" TARP banks...I interviewed for an IT role with the old Manny Hanny group within Chase Manhattan bank in the late 1990s...they were a bank buried within a larger bank, and soon to merge with JP Morgan and a host of other banks.
Yeah quite a lot of people don't understand the power of holding or just "financial services" companies in todays economy. They are quiet giants in most respects. For example, in the "147-corporations who rule the world paper"[1] I noticed number 13 was Franklin Resources Inc. Never heard of them, but apparently as a holding company they are one of the most powerful in the world... with many more like them.
