Banking without Interstate Barriers

In today’s deregulated banking environment, more and more states are considering loosening their interstate banking restrictions. Ohio, Michigan, and Florida are three of about fifteen states currently considering interstate banking legislation. If such legislation were enacted, these states would join 15 other states that already allow some form of interstate banking. Most of the interstate banking laws are very restrictive as to who can enter and the powers of the entrants. States with the least restrictive laws include Alaska and Maine, which allow interstate banking with any state; New York, which allows interstate banking with any state that permits reciprocal entry; and Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, which allow banks from reciprocating states in New England to expand interstate and bar banks from entering from outside the region.