 | | |
Freeze or jump? That is the question
 Europe's biggest banks are in a quandary - most are reaching the limits of growth in their domestic markets but none has yet come up with a convincing strategy for expanding into the rest of Europe. Cross-border mergers have been tried in only a few cases - mainly smaller countries - because it is hard to make them stack up for shareholders ...more
SAVINGS AND COOPERATIVE BANKS:
In need of a thorough overhaul
As corporate restructuring and consolidation sweep across Europe, the prospects for structural change remain surprisingly limited among the continent's savings and co-operative banks. Some observers believe this is the sector most in need of overhaul ...more
SHAREHOLDER VALUE:
Shift of emphasis
The European Central Bank warned last year that increased competition between banks following monetary union might force some into high-risk strategies, which it defined as those of "the rather short-term oriented shareholder value philosophy" ...more
IT COMPATIBILITY:
Hard lessons of merging software
First users of information technology may win an early lead but slower competitors obtain equipment and software that outstrips the first generation in performance. That lesson is writ large in the experience of traditional bricks-and-mortar banks which were among the first businesses to computerise their processing ...more
SINGLE MARKET:
Crucial for EU's competitiveness
Frits Bolkestein, the EU's single market commissioner, admitted recently that the EU had not yet created a true internal market in financial services, even though it has been trying to build one since 1973 ...more
WHOLESALE BANKING:
Euro gives a boost to bond markets
Few people would have expected the launch of the euro 18 months ago to play into the hands of the American banks.But one effect of the single currency has been to accelerate the trend for European companies in search of funding to rely less on traditional bank finance and increasingly on tapping the capital markets ...more
CROSS-BORDER PAYMENTS:
Target practice for a bigger EU
After weathering storms in the wake of the launch of the single currency, the European Central Bank is now facing up to the new challenges that confront Target, its international payments system ...more
|
|
 | |
