directly with employers helps steer them toward long - term, steady employment. conclusion in conclusion, i am proud that the federal reserve is contributing to the efforts of the p - tech program in the rochester area and i look forward to the video presentations we will have shortly. i want to congratulate in advance the winners of the video competition, who will also be announced shortly. i also want to congratulate all of you for being part of a 21st century education program that will help connect you to pathways of opportunity and help enable you to make important contributions to the vitality of your community. 1 i am grateful to heidi kaplan for her assistance in preparing this text. the remarks represent my own views, which do not necessarily represent those of the federal reserve board or the federal open market committee. 2 p - tech is short for pathways in technology early college high. 3 see lael brainard, “ coming of age in the great recession, ” speech given to the federal reserve ’ s conference on “ economic mobility : research and ideas on strengthening families, communities, and the economy, ” april 2, 2015. 4 for more information on the working cities challenge, see www. bostonfed. org / communitydevelopment / smaller - industrial - cities / working - cities - challenge. aspx. for the dallas fed ’ s work on closing the digital divide, see www. dallasfed. org / cd / pubs. aspx. for the atlanta fed ’ s center for workforce and economic opportunity, see www. frbatlanta. org / cweo. aspx. and on the investing in america ’ s workforce initiative, see www. investinwork. org. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

the concept had stagnated, and the benefits of specialization and the provision of niche service were recognized instead. i believe that this past experience with business conglomerates could be tempering some enthusiasm for affiliations among the larger financial firms. the difficulty of finding synergies, planning management structures, engaging in post - merger integration, and other management issues may be influencing the willingness of larger firms to affiliate. these same experiences should temper our views of the future structure of the financial services industry. managing much larger, more - diversified firms clearly offers both challenges and benefits. although this business strategy may be optimal for some, it is surely not the best approach for all financial services firms. so what will the financial services industry look like in the future? obviously, no one can say for sure, but i expect that consolidation will continue to occur both within and across segments of the financial industry. the number of commercial banks is likely to continue to decline, but i expect that we will always have a large number of banks in the united states and that they will vary considerably in their size and geographic scope. as one telling piece of evidence, i note that over the 1980s and the 1990s more than 4, 000 new commercial bank charters were granted in the united states. essentially all of these new banks were quite small, but were able to achieve profitability in a relatively short period of time. this having been said, we may well see the formation of a few very large financial conglomerates, but we will almost certainly continue to see many firms, both in banking and other financial businesses, that specialize in providing a narrower range of financial products and services. we will probably see an increase in the number of combinations between u. s. - based and foreignbased entities, but many strictly domestic financial service providers will remain. in short, i believe that diversity in size, product offerings, and geographic scope will continue to characterize the american financial services industry for many years to come. some implications for supervision and regulation what do these trends and projections mean for bank supervision and regulation? a full answer to that question is too tall an order for today, but i would like to highlight what i consider some of the most important implications for maintaining a safe, sound, and competitive banking system. perhaps the best place to begin is with an understanding of the regulatory framework of gramm - leach - bliley. this landmark legislation facilitated the development of truly diversified financial institutions, allowing the market system to decide what arrangements are