home mortgage loan products became commonplace. this led to securitization of a variety of other consumer loan products, such as auto and credit card loans. the current banking structure today's fiercely competitive market for consumer credit evolved into its present form slowly but persistently. along the way, critical structural changes occurred, including entry of, and expansion through, new players. deregulation of u. s. banking markets has contributed to an approximately 50 percent decline in the number of banking and thrift organizations since the mid - 1980s, when industry consolidation began. from 1995 to 2004, the ten largest u. s. banking and thrift organizations, ranked by the total assets of their depository subsidiaries, have increased their share of domestic banking and thrift assets from 29 percent to 48 percent. however, according to most studies, this ongoing consolidation of the u. s. banking system has not reduced overall competitiveness for consumer financial services. when consolidation occurs, it is not uncommon for the merger to result in de novo entry to take advantage of any inefficiencies or transition difficulties of the newly consolidated enterprise. over the past five years, for example, for every five bank mergers that have been approved, two de novo bank charters have been granted. even in the face of consolidation, competition is fought on the battlefield of the local market, where most households obtain the majority of their banking services. and, it is noteworthy that our measures of local market competition have remained quite stable over the past fifteen years. deregulation and consolidation have also cultivated the expansion of the financial services marketplace, as evidenced by the proliferation of many nonbank entities that provide the credit and transaction services that were once mainly the province of depository institutions. the impact of technology on financial services markets as has every segment of our economy, the financial services sector has been dramatically transformed by technology. technological advancements have significantly altered the delivery and processing of nearly every consumer financial transaction, from the most basic to the most complex. for example, information processing technology has enabled creditors to achieve significant efficiencies in collecting and assimilating the data necessary to evaluate risk and make corresponding decisions about credit pricing. with these advances in technology, lenders have taken advantage of credit - scoring models and other techniques for efficiently extending credit to a broader spectrum of consumers. the widespread adoption of these models has reduced the costs of evaluating the creditworthiness of borrowers, and in competitive markets cost reductions tend to be passed through to borrowers

. where once more - marginal applicants would simply have been denied credit, lenders are now able to quite efficiently judge the risk posed by individual applicants and to price that risk appropriately. these improvements have led to rapid growth in subprime mortgage lending ; indeed, today subprime mortgages account for roughly 10 percent of the number of all mortgages outstanding, up from just 1 or 2 percent in the early 1990s. for some consumers, however, this reliance on technology has been disconcerting. credit - scoring models are complex algorithms designed to predict risk. consumer advocates have raised concerns about the transparency and completeness of the information fit to the algorithm, as well as the rigidity of the types of data used to render credit decisions. consumer advocates contend that the lack of flexibility in the models can result in the exclusion of some consumers, such as those with little or no credit history, or misrepresentation of the risk that they pose. to address these concerns, some firms have worked to customize credit - scoring systems to include new data and to revalue the weight of the variables employed. also, new organizations have emerged, developing new systems for collecting alternative data, such as rent payments and other recurring payments that will enable creditors to evaluate creditworthiness of consumers who lack experience with credit. improved access to credit for consumers, and especially these more - recent developments, has had significant benefits. unquestionably, innovation and deregulation have vastly expanded credit availability to virtually all income classes. access to credit has enabled families to purchase homes, deal with emergencies, and obtain goods and services. home ownership is at a record high, and the number of home mortgage loans to low - and moderate - income and minority families has risen rapidly over the past five years. credit cards and installment loans are also available to the vast majority of households. the more credit availability expands, however, the more important financial education becomes. in this increasingly competitive and complex financial services market, it is essential that consumers acquire the knowledge that will enable them to evaluate products and services from competing providers and determine which best meet their long - and short - term needs. like all learning, financial education is a process that should begin at an early age and continue throughout life. this cumulative process builds the skills necessary for making critical financial decisions that affect one's ability to attain the assets, such as education, property, and savings, that improve economic well - being. conclusion as we reflect on the evolution of consumer