What should regulators do about merger policy?

I argue that merger policy needs to be driven by different considerations i n Europe, Japan and the United States. In Europe the main challenge is to s et up a system so that efficient consolidation can occur once the single cu rrency is established. In Japan the policy ought to be directed towards try ing to attract foreign institutions to acquire under-capitalized domestic i nstitutions. Japan does not seem to be taking this route. In the US consoli dation it is already occurring and the current policy should be continued. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.