WASHINGTON – A bipartisan Senate coalition has rejected a proposal to limit the size of the nation's largest banks as a means of reining in the financial sector. The Senate voted 61-33 against a proposal that would have required the nation's giant banks to split up. The Obama administration has argued that the size of financial institutions was not the root cause of the 2008 Wall Street crisis. The proposal by Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Ted Kaufman of Delaware was staunchly opposed by the bank industry. Brown and Kaufman argued that cutting banks down to size would end firms deemed "too big to fail." Among the banks that would have been affected were Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Financial Debate Renews Scrutiny on Banks’ Size April 21, 2010, 4:51 PM

The banking industry has become much more concentrated as it has grown in recent years. In 1995, the assets of the six largest banks were equivalent to 17 percent of G.D.P.; now they amount to 63 percent of G.D.P. Meanwhile, the share of all banking industry assets held by the top 10 banks rose to 58 percent last year, from 44 percent in 2000 and 24 percent in 1990.