Aside from political considerations, the Eurobanks developed as a result of profit considerations. Since costly regulations are imposed on U.S. banks, banks located outside the United States could offer higher interest rates on deposits and lower interest rates on loans than their U.S. competitors. For instance, U.S. banks are forced to hold a fraction of their deposits in the form of non-interest-bearing reserves. Because Eurobanks are essentially unregulated and hold much smaller reserves than their U.S. counterparts, they can offer narrower spreads on dollars. The spread is the difference between the deposit and loan interest rate. Besides lower reserve requirements, Eurobanks also benefit from having no govern- ment-mandated interest rate controls, no deposit insurance, no government-mandated credit allocations, no restrictions on entry of new banks (thus encouraging greater competition and efficiency), and low taxes. This does not mean that the countries hosting the Eurobanks do not use such regulations. What we observe in these countries are two sets of banking rules: various regulations and restrictions apply to banking in the domestic currency, whereas offshore banking activities in foreign cur- rencies go largely unregulated.