“…In other words, until now administrative factors and geographical closeness to centres of budget policy have been much more important in Russia, than in the USA. Banking geographies of the United States and Russian Federation were examined separately in several publications [Aubuchon & Wheelock, 2010;Bernshtam & Luzanov, 2001;DeYoung, Klier & McMillen, 2004;Luzanov, 2002;Luzanov, 2009;Nikitin, 2012;Wheelock, 2011;Zhou, 1997;Zhou, 1998;Zhou, 2010], which are very important for understanding of the industry in focus. Nevertheless, there are many fundamental aspects that were not investigated before.…”