1.   Also the combination of both activities enables banks to reduce overall operating costs.

2.   If this brings bank reserves below their prudent ratio, banks will reduce advances.

3.   Analysts say banks are reducing branch networks even without mergers by simply closing offices.

4.   And if banks reduce their risk-taking and curtail their lending, the economy will slow sharply, and could even fall into a recession.

5.   As banks have reduced their role in the leveraged-loan market, private investors have stepped in.

6.   Banks have reduced their costs while they present an increasing array of new products to entice customers to take out credit.

7.   Dimon said the bank would reduce employment mainly through attrition and would focus on reducing nonemployment expenses.

8.   In early December, with the cost of many corporate bonds rising and banks reducing their lending, Greenspan worried aloud that banks might have been overreacting.

9.   In turn, he said banks should reduce their reliance on government subsidies.

10.   In turn, banks are reducing their holdings of insurers, he said.