&gt; The number of small community banks and credit unions in the US is huge.<p>Which is completely irrelevant to the issue of the regulatory difficulty of starting a <i>new</i> one <i>today</i>.<p>&gt; There are easily tens of thousands of small banks across this country.<p>No, there aren&#x27;t, and the number is dropping over time.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mercatus.org&#x2F;publication&#x2F;small-banks-numbers-2000-2014" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mercatus.org&#x2F;publication&#x2F;small-banks-numbers-2000-201...</a>