(1888PressRelease)
September 11, 2007 - European banks risk lagging behind their US, Japanese and eventual Chinese counterparts as legislation prevents them from merging with or acquiring regional competitors, it has been claimed.
According to Rijkman Groenink, chief executive of Dutch bank ABN Amro, banks from small countries are unable to become "national champions" as their markets are undersized, threatening their ability to become global players.
However, "serious and persistent statutory obstacles" to expansion in the European sphere is forcing these very banks to focus on their domestic markets, which means they could fall behind global rivals in terms of development.
""It is hardly surprising that large European retail banks have concentrated on domestic consolidation," Rijkman Groenink told a conference held in Amsterdam.
"Current fragmentation means that European banks risk falling behind. Eventually they will be prey for banks from outside the region. In banking, the world is so much bigger than Europe."
Meanwhile, Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos used the conference to justify the government's decision to back a proposed acquisition of ABN Amro.
"It is far more important to create more space for what is small and dynamic, than to protect what is large and old," he argued.
Additional European banking sector analysis can be supplied by Aranca, an end-to-end provider of on-demand, custom investment, business and economic research.
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