By anyone's standards, these are tough times for the banking industry. The subprime credit crisis and record losses in trading activities are among the issues that have taken a heavy toll on recent bank financial performance, which could impact growth in bank acquisitions of independent insurance agents. The question is how?

In 2007, when many of these problems first hit the headlines, the number of agency acquisitions by banks was down one-third from its peak reached in 2000. It's yet to be seen if the banking industry will return to its previous level of agency deals.

Will the lessons of this challenging period change the banking industry's interest in the insurance distribution business? If so, will we see a surge in agency acquisitions by banks, or will we see declining interest?

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