The Internationalisation of the European Banking Sector

Abstract

We briefly describe recent evidence on the process ofintegration and internationalisation ofthe Europeanbanking sector. To date, these trends seem to be the result ofdomestic consolidation and worldwide expansion ofbanks rather than an effect of EU integration, in particular ifwe focus our analysis on retailbanking in the Euro Zone. We, nevertheless, note that the increase in the number ofintra-European M&Asin the last three years might be signalling a qualitative change towards a more integrated and homogeneous banking sector across Europe.