6. Overview of European Banking
Banking sectors in western Europe and the formerly state-owned banks in central and eastern Europe have completely different historic roots. In addition, their transformation into the European Economic Area (EEA) has followed separate strategies.
Thus, this part of the European overview section continues to highlight European banks in two different chapters illustrating the evolution of the banking sectors in western Europe and in the CEE region so far.
Further, this section highlights briefly important market trends in European banking from a payments industry perspective.
6.1 European Banks and Digital Banking Trends
In most European countries, more than 100% of the population has subscribed to a mobile phone. As at end-2024, more than 85% of all mobile phones are now online-capable smartphones with either iOS or Android operating system. The European online/mobile communication infrastructure is an enhancement for digital banking and other digital services.
All banks in western Europe and the CEE region offer online banking services and mobile banking apps to their clients for more than ten years. At end-2024, on average 77% of all EU27+UK bank clients were online banking users and/or mobile banking users, up from 32% in 2009.
Before the implementation of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and its Open Banking mandate however, European online/mobile banking services had been focussed on domestic-banking services only.
The adoption of the revised PSD2 has now set the stage for Open Banking in Europe. PSD2 challenges for account serving banks and Fintechs include Open Banking, Open APIs and the rollout of Open Banking payment services together with digital banking apps.
PSD2 lowered the high domestic market barriers for market entry to both innovative banks and trusted third-party FinTech partners. In addition, PSD2 opened doors for innovative players to offer services that did not exist, e.g. account information services and personal finance management across banks, and digital ID/KYC services.
After an initial phase of resistance, many European banks have embraced Open Banking, and new digital challenger banks can offer their banking services in Europe. It is noted that leading European banks opted for both integrating account information services across banks and immediate payment services into their online/mobile banking apps.
European banks compete now with so-called neo banks and independent payment initiation service providers operating in Europe. On the other hand, innovative European banks act as digital banking hubs cooperating with trusted third-party FinTech partners on an individual bank level.
Trusted FinTech partners of European banks may include payment initiation service providers (PISPs like Klarna), independent account information service providers (AISPs), consumer credit finance partners, personal finance management partners (PFMs), and/or ETF broker advisors.
Market Trend – Mobile Banking Apps
Mobile banking apps are now a core channel for retail banking in Europe, rather than an add-on to internet banking. Driven by very high smartphone penetration and consumers’ preference for always-on digital services, most banks now offer app-based, omnichannel banking that combines account management, card controls, savings tools and payments in a single interface. The broader European payments market is also becoming more digital and remote, with online payments rising strongly between 2019 and 2024.
Today’s leading European banking apps typically allow customers to check balances in real time, manage cards, receive transaction alerts, authenticate with biometrics, add cards to digital wallets, and initiate account-to-account transfers directly from the handset. Increasingly, apps also support multi-bank account aggregation enabled by open banking, helping users view accounts held with different providers in one place. In the UK, open banking adoption has continued to expand, with around 13.3 million active users recorded by March 2025.
A major recent development has been the integration of instant account-based payments into mobile banking apps. Under the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation, payment service providers in the euro area have been required since January 2025 to receive instant euro payments and, from 9 October 2025, to offer customers the ability to send them as well. The new rules also require payee verification, strengthening protection against errors and certain scams. In parallel, the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme supports pan-European euro transfers in seconds on a 24/7/365 basis.
As functionality has expanded, security has become even more important. European regulators note that strong customer authentication has helped reduce fraud involving stolen credentials, but fraudsters have increasingly shifted towards social-engineering and authorised push payment scams, including attacks exploiting mobile channels. As a result, banks are enhancing app-based security with biometric login, device binding, behavioural monitoring, real-time alerts and stronger payee checks.
Overall, the market trend is clear: mobile banking apps in Europe are evolving into the main consumer interface for everyday financial management, combining banking, payments, security and increasingly open-banking-based services in one digital environment.
Market Trend – Omnichannel Self-Service Banking
As more and more bank customers expect banking services to be available seamlessly across branches, ATMs, online banking and mobile apps, European banks have continued to adapt their physical and digital distribution models. In parallel with the long-term growth of digital banking, the number of bank branches has kept declining across most European markets. The European Banking Federation notes that domestic branch numbers fell again in 2023 in nearly all EU markets, with particularly large reductions in Germany, Italy and France.
By end-2024, the main market trend was no longer a simple migration from branch banking to online banking, but the creation of integrated omnichannel service models. Banks increasingly combine mobile and online channels with automated physical touchpoints such as advanced ATMs, cash recycling machines and smaller self-service branch formats. At the same time, cash remains important in much of Europe, which means banks and ATM deployers still need to maintain convenient access to cash even while branch networks are being rationalised. In the euro area, cash was still the most frequently used point-of-sale payment method in 14 out of 20 countries in 2024.
Self-Service Branches – For many years, the number of traditional staffed bank branches serving retail clients has declined as online and mobile banking use has expanded. European banks continue to replace part of the branch counter function with self-service infrastructure, including ATMs with deposit functionality, cash recycling machines and digital service kiosks that allow customers to carry out routine banking transactions on site. The strategic aim is to maintain a physical presence at lower cost while keeping basic banking and cash services available.
New self-service branch concepts are designed for flexible indoor and outdoor use, including compact branch formats, lobby-based 24/7 self-service areas, shop-in-shop concepts and off-premise machines in smaller towns or rural locations. In practice, the emphasis is on combining digital convenience with physical access to cash and essential banking services. Self-service formats fit well with the lifestyle of mobile-first bank clients, but they also serve a financial-inclusion role for customers who still value local cash access.
Innovative banks have also introduced stronger digital authentication into unattended service environments. In practice, this usually means app-based authentication, one-time codes, device binding and biometric authentication on the customer’s own smartphone rather than widespread standalone biometric identification at the machine itself. Behavioural and biometric authentication have expanded in European banking particularly because PSD2 strong customer authentication encouraged broader use of such tools.
Advanced ATM Devices – The ATM has continued to evolve from simple teller-replacement technology into a broader self-service banking platform. Earlier functional extensions included mini-statements, mobile top-ups and advertising; newer generations increasingly support cash deposit, cash recycling, bill payments and additional service functions. The spread of cash recycling machines is especially important because they accept deposits, authenticate and recirculate fit banknotes, and help banks reduce branch handling and transportation costs.
In a number of markets, advanced ATM and self-service devices now form part of wider unattended branch concepts. Their role is less about offering every possible banking product on the screen and more about supporting high-frequency transactions efficiently while linking customers back to mobile or online channels for more complex services. The overall trend is toward smarter, more connected self-service infrastructure rather than merely more ATMs.
Mobile Cash and Contactless ATMs – Cardless cash access has moved from pilot stage to a more established feature in selected European markets, although adoption remains uneven from country to country. In these models, customers authenticate through the bank’s mobile app and then use a QR code, one-time code or other app-based process to withdraw cash at an ATM without inserting a physical card. Some banks have also enabled cardless deposits using the same approach. Garanti BBVA, for example, has long offered QR-code-based ATM withdrawals and deposits without a card, and Intesa Sanpaolo’s app documentation also refers to QR-code-based cardless withdrawals.
The strategic importance of mobile cash lies in the connection it creates between digital banking and the cash ecosystem. It reduces reliance on plastic cards, supports app-centric customer journeys and can improve convenience and security when combined with in-app authentication. However, it would be overstated to say that neither a card nor a bank account is generally required in Europe: in most European cases, cardless ATM use is still linked to an existing banking relationship and a registered mobile banking app.
Biometric Authentication at ATMs – In order to reduce reliance on cards and PINs over the medium term, some banks have tested biometric authentication for ATM access, while many more have focused on mobile-phone-based cardless cash. Yet biometric authentication at ATMs has not become a mainstream European standard. The more important practical trend has been the use of biometrics on the customer’s mobile device for login and transaction authentication, combined with app-based initiation of ATM withdrawals. In other words, biometrics are increasingly part of the omnichannel banking journey, but usually through the mobile banking app rather than through facial or voice recognition built directly into the ATM on a large scale.
Market Trend – Banks and Digital Wallets
The relationship between banks and digital wallets in Europe has changed significantly over the past decade. Earlier discussion focused mainly on rising card-not-present (CNP) fraud and the search for safer online card payments. That fraud challenge remains highly relevant, but the market has moved on from the first generation of proprietary scheme wallets such as V.me and MasterPass toward tokenised card-on-file, issuer wallet provisioning, Click to Pay, and large-scale platform wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. The ECB and EBA reported in August 2024 that the total value of fraud across the main payment instruments reached €4.3 billion in 2022 and €2.0 billion in the first half of 2023, while strong customer authentication has been particularly effective in reducing card fraud risk within the EEA.
EMV chip security remains central for card-present environments such as ATMs and POS terminals, but e-commerce requires different controls. For online card payments, EMV 3-D Secure has become the relevant security framework, helping issuers and merchants authenticate cardholders and reduce CNP fraud. In Europe, this has been reinforced by PSD2 strong customer authentication requirements. Even so, fraud has not disappeared, because compromised credentials, social-engineering attacks, and weak merchant implementation still create vulnerabilities in remote commerce. The security trend is therefore away from static card details and toward stronger authentication, tokenisation and more secure checkout experiences.
With this objective, the international card schemes shifted from their earlier proprietary wallets to Click to Pay, based on the EMV Secure Remote Commerce standard. Click to Pay is now the main scheme-led model for simplifying and securing online checkout, effectively replacing earlier services such as Visa Checkout and MasterPass. Visa describes Click to Pay as a standard feature for eligible cards, while Mastercard positions it as a one-click online checkout experience built around tokenisation and reduced manual card entry. In Europe, both schemes have continued to push merchant and issuer adoption. Mastercard’s 2024 partnership with PrestaShop was presented as a significant step in expanding Click to Pay across European e-commerce.
A digital wallet today is best understood more broadly than in the earlier cloud-wallet model. In practice, European consumers use several wallet types: scheme-based remote checkout solutions such as Click to Pay; device wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay for in-store and in-app payments; and merchant or account-based wallets such as PayPal. The common security denominator is increasingly tokenisation rather than the storage and repeated use of raw PAN credentials. This reflects a wider industry direction toward eliminating manual card entry over time.
Since 2012, markets such as the UK, France and Spain have indeed been important testing grounds for digital wallet competition, but the competitive landscape has changed. The earlier battle between domestic bank wallets, Visa Checkout, MasterPass and PayPal has given way to a market in which Apple Pay and Google Pay are now deeply embedded in bank card strategies, while Click to Pay is emerging as the scheme-backed standard for online guest checkout. Apple Pay in particular now works with a very large number of banks across Europe, illustrating how banks increasingly cooperate with large platform wallets rather than trying to build and scale their own standalone wallet brands.
As a result, many earlier domestic bank wallet initiatives have either been repositioned, absorbed into broader banking apps, or discontinued. Paym in the UK is a good example. Launched as a mobile number-based person-to-person payment service backed by major banks, it was closed permanently on 7 March 2023 after transaction volumes and user growth declined as consumers migrated to other payment services. This underlines a broader market lesson: bank-led wallets can succeed when they are tightly integrated into mainstream customer journeys, but standalone wallet propositions have often struggled against the combined scale of mobile banking apps, real-time account-to-account payments and global platform wallets.
Overall, the market trend by end-2024 was clear. Banks in Europe still play a central role in digital wallets, but increasingly as card issuers, authentication providers and wallet enablers rather than as the owners of dominant standalone wallet brands. Their cards are being provisioned into Apple Pay and Google Pay, their online card portfolios are being connected to Click to Pay, and their mobile banking apps are increasingly combining account-based payments, card controls and digital wallet functionality in one place. The strategic focus has shifted from launching branded wallets of their own to supporting secure, tokenised and omnichannel digital commerce.
Market Trend – Banks and Digitalisation of Payments
Since the mid-2010s, European banks and competing FinTechs have accelerated the digitalisation of payments in several directions, but the structure of the market has evolved. The key pillars are now: instant account-to-account payments, standard SEPA credit transfer-based e-commerce payments, digital wallets, tokenised card payments, and broader embedded or value-added digital payment services. The ECB continues to frame instant payments, pan-European solutions and digital innovation as central elements of Europe’s retail payments strategy.
The earlier distinction between IBAN-based SCT Inst, SCT and SDD services remains useful, but in practice the strongest growth momentum has been in instant account-based payments and in wallet-based user experiences built on top of bank accounts or cards. Domestic and regional examples such as BLIK, Bancontact Payconiq, MobilePay, Swish and Vipps illustrate how banks and FinTechs have used account-based rails to support person-to-person, consumer-to-business and e-commerce use cases. At pan-European level, the European Payments Initiative is trying to extend this logic further through Wero, a bank-backed account-to-account wallet for P2P and online payments.
One of the major strategic objectives has been to reduce reliance on static card credentials and static account details by replacing them, where possible, with tokenised credentials, dynamic authentication and app-based payment initiation. EMV Payment Tokenisation is specifically designed to replace the primary account number with a unique token that can be limited to a device, merchant or payment scenario, improving security in-store, in-app and online. This direction also helps reduce fraud exposure and can ease parts of the merchant PCI burden.
At the same time, PSD2 and open banking have encouraged banks and third parties to invest in cardless digital payment services that sit outside the traditional card model. The strategic issue is no longer simply digitalisation for its own sake, but who controls the customer journey in a market increasingly shaped by instant payments, open banking interfaces, wallets and tokenised commerce. Recent ECB strategy documents continue to emphasise the importance of pan-European payment solutions, innovation and European autonomy in payments as retail payments become more digital.
Market Trend – Banks embraced Immediate Payments
In parallel with card payments and traditional account-based payment services, European banks have increasingly embraced immediate payments as a strategic priority. What was once a promising innovation has now become a regulatory and competitive necessity. The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme has been live since November 2017, and the European policy direction has shifted decisively toward making instant payments broadly available across the region.
This shift has been reinforced by the EU Instant Payments Regulation. In euro area Member States, banks were required to be able to receive instant euro payments by 9 January 2025, and to be able to send them by 9 October 2025. The same framework also introduces verification of payee and the principle that charges for instant payments must not exceed those for regular credit transfers. These rules are intended to make instant payments faster, safer and more mainstream across Europe.
The underlying scheme footprint has expanded strongly. According to ECB material presented at the Euro Retail Payments Board, as of June 2025 there were 2,765 registered SCT Inst participants, representing 78% of all SCT adherents across SEPA. That is a much firmer basis for scale than in the early years of instant payments, and it shows that the market has moved beyond pilots toward broad infrastructure adoption.
Immediate payments are important because they support frictionless digital commerce and enable funds to move within seconds, 24/7/365. This creates opportunities for banks, merchants and FinTechs to build value-added services on top of the rails, including request-to-pay, QR-code-based initiation, account-to-account e-commerce and richer mobile payment experiences. In the emerging open banking ecosystem, instant payments are increasingly seen not as a niche payment type, but as a core foundation for new digital payment propositions.
From a market perspective, the story by end-2024 and into 2025 was clear: banks were no longer merely evaluating the risks and opportunities of immediate payments; they were being pushed by regulation, customer expectations and competitive pressure to industrialise them. Domestic overlay services remain important in many markets, but the broader European trend is toward wider SCT Inst participation, stronger integration into mobile banking apps, and a larger role for instant account-to-account payments in everyday retail payments.
Market Trend – European Banks, Open Banking and Open APIs
The legal framework for European banks, payment institutions and FinTechs has been reshaped by PSD2, which laid the foundations for open banking by requiring access to payment-account data and payment-initiation functionality for authorised third parties, subject to customer consent and security rules. Since then, open banking has moved from a compliance project to a core part of the digital banking landscape. At the same time, the EU has been preparing the next phase of reform: in June 2023 the European Commission proposed a new Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and a revised Payment Services Directive (PSD3), alongside a broader Financial Data Access (FIDA) framework aimed at extending data-sharing beyond payment accounts into wider “open finance”.
Before PSD2, online and mobile banking in Europe were largely centred on each bank’s own domestic channels and customer relationships. PSD2 reduced some of the historical barriers to entry for regulated third parties by creating the legal basis for account information services (AIS) and payment initiation services (PIS). This opened the door to a wider ecosystem of aggregators, personal finance management tools, alternative payment initiators and other digital service providers that could connect to bank infrastructure through APIs rather than screen scraping. The Commission’s own explanation of the 2023 payments package makes clear that the original open-banking model under PSD2 covers only payment-account data, which is one reason the EU is now considering a broader open-finance framework.
By end-2024, all major European banks serving retail clients offered online banking and mobile banking apps, and these digital channels generally supported core SEPA payment products while increasingly incorporating instant payments, digital wallets and open-banking-based features. The infrastructure side has also matured: SEPA has provided the common basis for harmonised euro payments, while the rollout of instant payments and API connectivity has made digital banking more capable of supporting multi-bank and third-party use cases. In parallel, the ECB continues to emphasise pan-European innovation, instant payments and improved digital payment solutions as strategic priorities for Europe.
In practical terms, innovative banks have increasingly embedded open-banking functionality into their own channels. This includes the ability to view accounts held with other banks, aggregate balances and transaction data, and in some cases initiate payments from linked external accounts. The UK remains the most advanced open-banking market in Europe on published adoption metrics: Open Banking Limited reported 13.3 million active users in March 2025, rising to 14.2 million in June 2025, underlining that open-banking services have moved well beyond pilot stage.
Another important trend has been the strengthening of customer control, security and transparency around access to accounts. Under the Commission’s proposed reforms, banks holding payment accounts would generally apply strong customer authentication only for the first access by an account information service provider, rather than forcing repeated re-authentication in ways that can undermine usability. More broadly, the regulatory direction is toward giving customers clearer visibility and control over who is accessing their data, while maintaining consent-based access and stronger fraud safeguards.
In line with PSD2, European banks act as account-servicing payment service providers and interact with regulated AISPs and PISPs through API frameworks. Some third parties use these connections to power standalone services; others are embedded into bank propositions through partnerships. The market has therefore developed in two parallel directions: competition, where FinTechs use open-banking connectivity to build independent services; and collaboration, where banks work with selected technology partners to add value in areas such as payments, personal financial management, lending journeys and identity-related services. Looking ahead, the likely direction of travel is from today’s open banking toward a broader open-finance environment, assuming the FIDA proposal progresses through the EU legislative process.
Leading banking groups have also continued to operate accelerators, venture programmes, labs and partnership hubs rather than relying only on in-house development. The more important point today, however, is not the physical existence of “innovation hubs” as such, but the fact that open APIs have become part of the operating model of modern banking. In Europe, digital banking infrastructure, open-banking regulation and instant-payment capability are increasingly converging into a more connected ecosystem in which banks remain central, but no longer act alone.
6.2 European Banks and Digital Card Business
European banks continue to issue contactless debit cards, credit cards, charge cards and prepaid cards, usually as part of broader current-account and business-banking packages. Card portfolios remain segmented by customer type, with consumer, business and corporate products tailored to different spending needs, travel patterns and value propositions. Across Europe, cards remain central to retail payments even as account-to-account and wallet-based alternatives grow. ECB consumer payment research for 2024 shows that cards are still one of the two dominant payment instruments at the point of sale across the euro area, alongside cash, while the UK market also continued to see card growth in 2023 according to the European Banking Federation.
Banks also continue to differentiate their card propositions through digital features rather than through plastic alone. Common value-added features now include card controls in the banking app, real-time transaction alerts, temporary card freezing, spending-limit management, PIN viewing or reset, tokenisation for wallet provisioning, and rewards such as cashback or loyalty points. In other words, the competitive card business is increasingly built around the digital layer attached to the card, not just the card product itself. Tokenisation has become especially important because it replaces sensitive card details with more secure tokens for e-commerce, in-app and mobile-wallet use cases.
Outlook – By mid-2025, European card issuers faced the following notable challenges:
Impact of eIDAS 2.0 on authentication flows, onboarding and mobile integration – The revised EU Digital Identity Framework entered into force on 20 May 2024 and requires Member States to offer at least one EU Digital Identity Wallet by 2026. For banks and card issuers, this matters because it is likely to affect digital identity, onboarding, authentication and the way banking and payment apps interact with trusted identity credentials over time.
Replacement of Maestro and V PAY with Debit Mastercard and Visa Debit – This migration is one of the clearest structural changes in European debit cards. Mastercard stated that, after 1 July 2023, expiring Maestro cards would be replaced with Debit Mastercard products, while Visa has been phasing V PAY toward Visa Debit. In practice, many markets were still completing this transition during 2024 and 2025 as legacy cards remained in circulation until expiry.
Rollout of contactless cards, mobile NFC card payments and new form factors – Contactless has become a standard rather than a novelty, and issuer strategy increasingly includes mobile wallet provisioning for smartphones and wearables. Visa’s issuer materials for Apple Pay and Google Pay show how banks are expected to support tokenised mobile card payments across devices, reinforcing the shift from plastic-only acceptance to multi-device card credentials.
New payment features such as variable recurring payments and BNPL-related card propositions – Variable recurring payments are real, but they are not a mainstream pan-European card feature in the same way as contactless or tokenisation. They are primarily an open-banking development, especially in the UK, where Open Banking Limited describes VRPs as customer-authorised recurring account-to-account payments and reported strong growth in 2025. For card issuers, the challenge is competitive overlap: cards must coexist with new recurring-payment models and with instalment and BNPL journeys that may be embedded into issuer or merchant propositions.
Rollout of online and mobile payment services through banking apps and FinTech partnerships – The digital card business is increasingly tied to the bank app, wallet enablement and partner ecosystems. Issuers need to support in-app provisioning, secure card-on-file experiences, digital card issuance and embedded card controls, while also deciding where to partner with FinTechs rather than build alone. This is part of the wider migration of the card business into digital banking channels.
Continued consolidation of card portfolios and products – The broad direction remains rationalisation: fewer legacy domestic variants, more globally accepted debit products, and stronger alignment between cards, wallets and digital account propositions. The Maestro and V PAY migrations are part of that consolidation story, as is the market’s shift toward unified debit brands with wider e-commerce and international acceptance.
Implementation of EMV 3-D Secure 2.3.1, digital wallets, in-app payments and in-store payments – EMVCo’s 3-D Secure 2.3.1 specification added data elements and flows designed to improve e-commerce authentication, including support for recurring and variable-amount transaction scenarios. For European issuers, the challenge is to combine better authentication, lower fraud and low-friction checkout across browser, app and wallet environments.
Strong customer authentication, risk-based authentication and biometrics – SCA remains a core part of the European card and digital-payments framework, but issuers are under constant pressure to make authentication less intrusive while still keeping fraud under control. That is pushing greater use of app-based approval, device binding and biometric authentication within mobile banking and wallet environments.
Tokenisation combined with NFC and stored card credentials – This is now one of the most important security and commercial themes in the digital card business. Visa’s tokenisation materials explicitly position network tokens as a way to secure mobile-wallet, in-app and e-commerce payments while improving transaction performance. For issuers, tokenisation is no longer optional plumbing; it is part of the core economics and security model of the modern card portfolio.
Competition from cardless payment providers and open-banking players – Card issuers are under pressure from PISPs, account-to-account payment solutions and broader open-banking payment services. This does not make cards obsolete, but it does intensify competition in e-commerce, recurring payments and app-based checkout, especially where banks and merchants want cheaper account-based alternatives.
Compliance with GDPR, PSD2 and the next phase of EU payments rules – By mid-2025, the compliance horizon for issuers extended beyond PSD2 and GDPR alone. The sector also had to monitor the implications of the proposed PSD3/PSR package and the developing European digital identity framework, both of which are relevant to authentication, fraud prevention, consent management and digital customer journeys.
Overall, the European digital card business remains large and resilient, but its centre of gravity has shifted. The core challenge is no longer simply issuing more cards; it is managing the card as a digital credential across wallets, apps, e-commerce, authentication journeys and increasingly competitive account-to-account alternatives.
Banks, Digital Cards and NFC Technologies
NFC technology is now fully established as a mainstream enabler of in-store digital card payments in Europe. Contactless cards have become standard across most European banking markets, while mobile NFC payments have shifted decisively toward tokenised wallet models embedded in smartphones and wearables. In practice, the market moved away from earlier experiments and toward issuer provisioning into platform wallets, app-based card controls and tokenised credentials for safer contactless use. EMVCo and Visa both describe tokenisation as a core security layer for contactless, in-app and e-commerce payments.
From a technology perspective, the most important long-term shift was from SIM-based secure element NFC models toward cloud-based and tokenised mobile wallet architectures. Visa’s 2014 explanation of Host Card Emulation described how HCE allowed NFC applications on Android devices to emulate a smart card while payment accounts could be hosted securely in the cloud, which is precisely the architecture that gained traction with issuers. Over time, most European banks abandoned the older SIM-SE model because it was operationally cumbersome and commercially unattractive compared with app-based wallet integration and network tokenisation.
In parallel, the market largely moved away from standalone wallet schemes that were not well integrated into the customer’s main banking relationship. The winning model has been to combine card payments, banking services and sometimes account-to-account transfers inside either the bank’s own mobile app or major platform wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Visa’s Digital Wallet Enabler materials reflect this direction by focusing on enabling issuers and wallet providers to manage contactless mobile payments and in-app transactions while keeping control of the customer relationship.
In selected segments, European banks have also supported a range of digital card form factors and adjacent technologies:
Virtual cards for online payments – Virtual and digitally issued cards are now a standard extension of the card business, especially for e-commerce, subscription management and instant card issuance into wallets. Their strategic importance lies in reducing exposure of the underlying card credentials and improving digital onboarding and card replacement journeys. Tokenisation supports this broader shift away from repeated use of static credentials.
NFC stickers – NFC stickers were one of the early transitional form factors used to bring contactless capability to devices or objects without embedded payment functionality. They demonstrated consumer interest in alternative form factors, but they remained niche and were largely overtaken by embedded contactless cards, smartphones and wearables. That makes them historically relevant, but no longer a defining market trend.
NFC wearable devices – Wearables such as watches, bands and key fobs are now a more credible form-factor extension than stickers, particularly where they are linked to mainstream wallet ecosystems. Apple Pay is available across a large number of banks and issuers in Europe and the Middle East, and Google Wallet supports tap to pay in a wide range of countries and regions, which has helped normalise wearable-based contactless card payments as part of a broader tokenised ecosystem.
Mobile SIM SE NFC Ecosystem – In the SIM-SE model, credentials were stored on the SIM card and mobile network operators played a central role. This approach generated many pilots in Europe but never achieved lasting scale. The problem was not the NFC concept itself; it was the complexity and cost of a multi-party model involving issuers, MNOs and trusted service managers. The commercial centre of gravity has since shifted decisively away from SIM-SE toward issuer- and wallet-led tokenised models.
Mobile HCE NFC Ecosystem – This became the more successful path. In HCE-based models, the sensitive underlying credentials are not used directly at the point of interaction in the same way; instead, network tokens can be provisioned and managed for contactless, in-app and e-commerce use. Visa explicitly presents token provisioning as a way for issuers to securely issue tokens for e-commerce, m-commerce, in-app and contactless purchases. This is the architecture that underpins most modern Android wallet-based NFC payment deployments.
Apple iCaisse – Early iPhone accessory-based NFC trials such as iCaisse have long since been superseded. Apple Pay is now the relevant model: cards are added directly into Apple Wallet on supported devices, with authentication through Face ID, Touch ID or passcode, and Apple maintains an extensive list of participating banks across Europe and neighbouring regions.
MasterPass, Visa Checkout, Click to Pay – The older proprietary scheme wallets have effectively given way to Click to Pay, the consumer-facing e-commerce solution based on EMV Secure Remote Commerce specifications. EMVCo states that Click to Pay solutions are developed by schemes, banks, fintechs and merchants, and are designed to reduce checkout friction while offering a consistent and secure remote-commerce experience. So the European bank role today is less about supporting MasterPass or Visa Checkout as separate brands, and more about issuer participation in Click to Pay and tokenised online checkout.
Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet and Google Wallet – These are now the main consumer-facing examples of tokenised mobile NFC card payments. Apple Pay works with a large number of participating banks across Europe, Africa and the Middle East; Google Wallet supports tap to pay in a very broad set of markets; and Samsung Wallet remains available in selected countries, though Samsung itself notes that availability varies by country, device and firmware. The market reality is that European banks increasingly support these wallets as part of their mainstream card proposition.
Overall, the European trend is clear: NFC is no longer the story by itself. The real story is the digitalisation of the card credential through tokenisation, wallet provisioning and tighter integration between cards, mobile banking apps and omnichannel commerce.
6.3 Western Europe
For most of the decade before the global financial crisis, retail banking in Western Europe was shaped by domestic consolidation followed by selective cross-border expansion. That earlier model has not disappeared entirely, but the market today looks more restrained and pragmatic. Western European banking remains heavily national in retail distribution, even within the EU single market and the euro area. The ECB noted in April 2024 that there is still relatively little cross-border retail banking activity, that most lending takes place within national markets, and that cross-border lending within the euro area accounts for only 7% of total retail lending.
The broad political ambition of a more integrated European banking market also remains in place, but the post-crisis experience has shown how difficult it is to achieve in practice. A 2024 European Parliament study concluded that banking union has delivered European-level integration of microprudential supervision, but not of crisis intervention, and that this incompleteness largely explains the disappointing progress in cross-border banking integration.
In other words, the earlier vision of a fully integrated pan-European retail banking market has only been partially realised. Western Europe still contains large banking groups with multi-market operations, and there are cross-border sub-regional banking clusters, but retail banking is still mainly organised country by country. Differences in taxation, insolvency regimes, consumer behaviour, regulation in practice, and national market structures continue to limit deeper retail integration. The ECB has explicitly said that European banking markets are not yet fully integrated and that cross-border merger and acquisition activity in banking has been weak.
Following the financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, the main priority shifted from expansion to resilience, supervision and restructuring. Western Europe saw major bank reshaping in countries such as Spain, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus and the UK, while the EU responded by building the Banking Union architecture. The most important institutional step was the launch of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) on 4 November 2014, under which the ECB assumed direct supervisory responsibility for significant banks in participating countries. That framework remains central today.
However, supervision has integrated faster than the market itself. By 2025, the ECB was still directly supervising only the significant institutions, while national authorities continued supervising less significant institutions. ECB banking supervision stated in April 2025 that it directly supervised 114 significant institutions across 21 countries. The ECB’s 2025 significance assessment then showed 112 significant institutions at consolidated level following the 2025 annual assessment, reflecting ongoing structural change in the supervised population.
The current Western European banking story is therefore less about headline-grabbing cross-border mergers and more about competitiveness, profitability, digitisation and the unfinished agenda of European integration. The European Commission noted in April 2025 that European banks had enjoyed fairly high profitability in recent years, but also stressed that the high segmentation of the banking system across national markets continues to complicate the landscape and that deeper integration through a Savings and Investments Union is important for competitiveness.
Overall, Western European retail banking today is best described as supervisory integration without full retail-market integration. The region has stronger common supervision, harmonised payment infrastructure and more coordinated rulemaking than in the pre-crisis era, but retail banking is still predominantly domestic in structure, strategy and customer relationships.
Impact of Online/Mobile Banking Trends on Bank Branches, Subsidiaries and Staff
Staffing levels have also been hit, reflecting a tightening of costs controls in the decade since the financial crisis and the ongoing advance of technology. Staff numbers slipped, falling to 2.80 million in 2016 from 2.85 million in 2015. This compares to 3.26 million in 2008. By end-2023, EU27+UK banks employed about 2.1 million people, the lowest level since 1997.
Number of Credit Institutions – According to the European Banking Federation (EBF), the downward trend in the number of EU27 credit institutions, which started in 2009, continued in 2024, falling to 4,834 (-93 units from 2023) from 8,162 in 2008. This marked a decline of 2.9% compared to the previous year and a reduction of 3,137 in total since contraction started. Most of the consolidation has occurred within credit institutions legally incorporated into the reporting country, where the stock has fallen by 38.4% since 2008. This trend includes factors such as mergers in the banking sector with a view to enhancing profitability.
The countries that experienced the largest contraction in absolute terms in 2024 were Austria (-16) and
Ireland (-15), followed by Italy (-10), France (-7) and Cyprus (-6), according to the EBF. Sweden (+1) and Lithuania (+1) were the only countries where the number of credit institutions increased. The number of credit institutions in the EFTA countries fell from 381 in 2023 to 365 in 2024, reaching a new lowest level.
Number of domestic Branches – The rationalisation taking place in the EU banking sector also involved bank branches. In 2016, European banks closed over 9,000 branches and shed 50,000 staff as customer defections to online and mobile channels surged, according to data from the European Banking Federation. The overview shows that banks have continued to scale back their physical presence across Europe as the importance of widespread bank branch networks is reduced.
The number of bank branches in the EU declined to 189,270 in 2016, a dip of 4.6% on the previous year. The figures show an upward curve from 2015, when just 3% of the Bloc’s branches were lost. In 2017, the number of bank branches continued to shrink, falling to about 183,000 by the end of 2017. Compared to the previous year, branches in the EU28 decreased by 3.1%, or about 5,900 branches. This partly reflects the increasing use of digital banking by consumers as more than half of EU individuals used internet banking in 2017 up from 29% in 2008.
Looking across a wider timescale, in 2016, European banks have shuttered more than 48,000 branches since 2008, a contraction of 20.4%. The number of branches has fallen by 21% since 2007, or by almost 50,000. Since 2007, the branch network contracted by more than 5,000 units in three countries: Spain (down by 18,020 units) Germany (down 8,769) and Italy (down 5,800).
In 2023, the rationalisation taking place in the EU banking sector continued to involve bank branches as the total number of branches continued to shrink, falling to 126,952 by the end of 2024. Compared to the previous year, the total number of branches in the EU-27 decreased by about 2.5%, or 3,242 branches.
This trend continues reflecting the increasing use of digital banking by consumers as more than 6 out of 10 EU individuals, 63.87%, used online banking in 2023, up from 59% in 2019, and 25% in 2007, when the data series began.
This confirms that banking customers have continuously and enthusiastically, adopting cashless payments as well as online banking and mobile banking. This has consequently reduced the importance of widespread bank branch networks, allowing banks to scale back further their physical presence.
Since 2008, the total number of branches has fallen by about 43% or 99,108. Spain (-28,473), Germany (-21,651) and Italy (-14,478) were the countries with the largest contraction. The number of domestic branches, the main category of branches, experienced in 2023 a contraction of about 2.5% or 3,236 branches, albeit at a slower pace than the previous years, reaching 126,182. In absolute terms, Germany (-1,631), Italy (-510), and France (-502) experienced the largest drops in domestic branches. Only two countries added domestic branches in 2024: Netherlands (+264) and Denmark (+21).
Foreign Bank Branches versus Subsidiaries – Already for several years, a trend in the establishment of branches has been dominating that of subsidiaries in the EU. At a consolidated bank level, there were 770 foreign bank branches in the EU in 2024, of which 612 were from other EU Member States and 158 were from third countries. The latter grew by +2 after experiencing a consecutive declining trend for the past 2 years. Spain continues to be the country with the highest number of foreign branches from other EU Member States, having 73 branches, followed by France (63) and Germany (61). Germany is also the country with the highest number of branches (45) of credit institutions from outside the EU followed by Italy (31) and France (26).
According to the EBF, the overall number of subsidiaries continued declining in 2024 falling by 0.6% to 346, the lowest level since 1997. The number of subsidiaries of credit institutions from other EU countries fell by 8 in 2024. The number of non-EU credit institutions’ subsidiaries experienced a small increase to reach 168, after experiencing a decrease in the previous year (162).
Structural Characteristics – Background
National banking markets in Western Europe remain relatively concentrated, but the structure is still uneven from country to country. Large domestic banking groups continue to dominate most retail markets, while Germany remains the clearest exception because of its long-standing three-pillar structure of private banks, public-sector savings banks and cooperative banks. The European Banking Federation’s 2024 statistics show that Germany alone accounted for 27% of all EU credit institutions in 2023, while Italy, Austria and France also had comparatively large numbers of institutions, reflecting more fragmented market structures than in many other Western European countries.
Retail banking in the large Western European economies is still mainly domestically anchored, even though foreign ownership, foreign branches and cross-border groups are part of the landscape. The bigger trend over the last decade has been continued consolidation within national markets rather than the creation of a fully pan-European retail banking sector. Across the EU, the number of credit institutions fell to 4,927 in 2023, down 38.2% from 2009, while domestic branch networks also continued to contract sharply.
That said, it would now be too narrow to describe Western European retail banking as purely domestic. Cross-border activity exists, but it is more visible in selected business lines, corporate banking and specialist finance than in everyday branch-based retail banking. The EBF data show that there were 620 branches in the EU in 2023 belonging to credit institutions from other EU Member States, with Spain, France and Germany hosting the largest numbers. This suggests that cross-border banking is real, but still complementary to largely national retail structures rather than transformative of them.
Several banking segments continue to operate internationally across Europe more easily than mass-market branch banking. Consumer finance, cards, payments, leasing, wealth management and specialised lending are all more naturally scalable across borders than universal retail banking networks. That remains consistent with the broader ECB view that European banking integration is still incomplete and that retail banking remains much more nationally organised than wholesale and capital-market activity.
Mutual, cooperative and public-sector banking models also remain important structural features in Western Europe. Germany is the clearest example: the public-sector banking pillar, including the Sparkassen and Landesbanken, represents just over a quarter of total banking assets, while the cooperative sector accounts for nearly 700 cooperative banks, slightly more than half of all institutions by number, and around 12% of total bank assets. In other Western European markets, savings banks, mutual groups and state-linked institutions also continue to play meaningful roles, although the precise balance differs by country and in some cases has diminished since the financial crisis.
The post-crisis years also changed how these ownership models are viewed. Mutual, cooperative and public institutions proved neither uniformly stronger nor uniformly weaker than commercial banks; much depended on governance, risk concentration and the domestic economic cycle. The earlier restructuring of the Spanish cajas remains the clearest reminder that non-listed ownership structures do not guarantee resilience. More broadly, the European banking sector has spent the last decade simplifying structures, shrinking branch networks and improving capital and supervision rather than pursuing aggressive cross-border retail expansion.
Overall, the structural picture in Western Europe today is one of consolidated national markets with important local institutional diversity. Large domestic banking groups dominate most countries, but Germany and a few other markets still retain more plural banking structures, and cross-border activity remains more significant in selected niches than in mainstream retail banking
Obstacles to Cross-Border Banking
Despite the expansion of groups such as Santander, BNP Paribas, UniCredit and ING, Western Europe still remains some distance from seamless cross-border retail banking. Wholesale and capital-market activity is far more integrated than retail banking, while most cross-border retail operations are still conducted through local subsidiaries or country-specific platforms. The ECB stated in April 2024 that there is still relatively little cross-border retail banking activity in Europe and that most lending remains domestic in nature.
Some obstacles are “natural” barriers linked to the way retail banking works in practice. Language, consumer habits, trust in domestic brands, and local preferences in channels and products still matter. Although digitalisation has reduced some of the old frictions, retail customers continue to borrow, save and interact with banks in ways that are strongly shaped by national markets. The ECB and recent European Parliament analysis both point to the persistence of nationally segmented retail banking structures despite progress in supervision and payments integration.
There are also important “man-made” barriers. These include differences in insolvency and foreclosure regimes, consumer-protection rules, taxation, corporate law, deposit insurance arrangements, and the still-incomplete framework for crisis management across borders. A 2024 European Parliament study concluded that Banking Union has integrated supervision, but not crisis intervention, and that this is a major reason why cross-border banking integration has progressed only slowly. ECB speeches in 2024 and 2025 also stressed that Europe’s banking sector remains insufficiently integrated to support stronger cross-border lending and consolidation.
The continuing importance of nationally defined retail banking markets reflects a combination of factors:
• Tax, legal and insolvency differences between countries
• Linguistic and cultural barriers
• Different customer preferences in distribution channels and products
• National approaches to consumer protection and mortgage lending
• The role of public, mutual and cooperative banking structures in some markets
• Different credit-reporting, address-validation and identity infrastructures
• The lack of a fully unified framework for deposit insurance and bank resolution across the EU
That said, some traditional obstacles have become less important as digital banking technologies, harmonised payment rules and open-banking frameworks have developed. PSD2 reduced barriers for regulated third parties and helped create a more standardised environment for account information services and payment initiation services. More broadly, online and mobile banking have made it easier for providers to reach customers without large physical branch networks, even if this has not yet produced a truly pan-European retail banking market. The EBA describes its role in promoting secure, innovative and competitive EU retail payments, while the ECB continues to link payments integration and digital innovation to the broader goal of a more integrated market.
Based on PSD2 and the open-banking framework, digital challenger banks and FinTechs have become more important competitors in retail financial services. They have challenged the traditional banking model by offering digital onboarding, multi-bank aggregation, app-based payments and more flexible user experiences. At the same time, most account-servicing banks in Europe now offer online banking and mobile apps, and many cooperate with selected FinTech partners in areas such as payment initiation, account aggregation, personal financial management and digital distribution. In this sense, open APIs have reduced some market-entry barriers, even though they have not removed the deeper structural reasons why cross-border retail banking in Europe remains limited.
Mergers & Acquisition in Western European Banking
| 6.3.3: M&A in Western European Banking | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Country | Merger/Acquisition |
| 2024 | ||
| April | Germany | Private equity owned former Landesbank Oldenburg (OLB) absorbed Degussa Bank |
| 2023 | ||
| June | Austria | Sberbank sold its Austrian subsidiary to an Austrian company |
| 2022 | ||
| September | Ireland | Irish state exits ownership of Bank of Ireland |
| June | Denmark | Handelsbanken announces sale of Danish operations to Jyske Bank |
| June | Italy | BPER completes the acquisition of Carige |
| April | Italy | Crédit Agricole becomes Banco BPM’s biggest shareholder |
| March | Greece | HSBC announces sale of Greek branch operations to Pancreta Bank |
| 2021 | ||
| November | France | HSBC Continental Europe announces planned sale of its French retail banking activities to Promontoria MMB SAS |
| October | Turkey | UniCredit disposes shareholding of Yapi Kredi to Koç Holding |
| October | Ireland | KBC announces sale of assets to Bank of Ireland Group |
| April | Italy | Credit Agricole acquired Creval |
| 2020 | ||
| December | France | Société Générale and Credit du Nord announce merger |
| November | Finland | Sydbank acquires Alm. Brand Bank |
| October | Austria | Merger of easybank and BAWAG |
| September | Spain | CaixaBank agrees to buy Bankia |
| July | Switzerland | Merger of Credit Suisse and subsidiary Neue Aargauer Bank |
| July | Italy | Intesa Sanpaolo acquires UBI Banca |
| April | Iceland | Icelandic challenger bank Indó announces its launch |
| December | Serbia | NLB Bank of Slovenia acquires Serbia’s Komercijalna banka |
| 2019 | ||
| December | Norway | Merger of BB Bank ASA and TF Bank AB |
| December | Turkey | Koç Holding acquires UniCredit’s 50% stake in KFS |
| November | Cyprus | AstroBank acquires National Bank of Greece’s Cyprus operations |
| October | United Kingdom | CYBG rebranded as Virgin Money Group |
| October | France | BPCE acquires 50.1% of Oney Bank from Auchan |
| September | Serbia | OTP Bank acquires Société Générale Serbia |
| August | Italy | BPER absorbs Unipol Banca |
| July | Ireland | Bankinter completes acquisition of EVO Banco and Irish consumer credit subsidiary Avantcard |
| June | Norway | Mastercard acquires the Real-Time Payments (RTP) platform from NETS |
| May | Norway | Merger of BRAbank ASA and Monobank ASA |
| April | Norway | Merger of Indre Sogn Sparebank, Aurland Sparebank and Vik Sparebank |
| February | France | Groupe BPCE acquires a 50.1% interest in Oney Bank from Auchan (FR) |
| 2018 | ||
| September | Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania | Private equity investor Blackstone (US) acquired a 60% stake in Luminor Bank for $1 billion from Nordea Group (S) and DNB Group (N), which both retained a 20% stake, respectively. |
| May | Portugal | Caixabank completes its acquisition of Banco BPI and now owns 100% of the company. |
| April | Spain | SistemaPay is formed from the merger of Euro6000, Sistema 4B and ServiRed |
| April | Germany | Deutsche Bank integrated Postbank into its division ‘DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank’ retaining Postbank as a brand. |
| March | Spain / Portugal | Banco Popular sold its remaining 49% stake in WiZink Bank to investor Värde Partners, including WiZink Portugal. |
| 2017 | ||
| October | Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania | Nordea Group (S) and DNB Group (N) merged their Baltic subsidiaries on country level to create the jointly owned Luminor Bank. In Estonia, Nordea Pank and DNB Pank merged. |
| August | France / Germany | Commerzbank (D) sold its 49.9% stake in Commerz Finanz to BNP Paribas Group (F). |
| June | UK | CYBG Group bought Virgin Money Bank for £1.7 billion from Virgin Group Holdings. |
| June | Portugal | BancoBIC became rebranded as EuroBIC. |
| June | Italy / Romania / Moldova | Intesa Sanpaolo Group took over Gruppo Veneto Banca (I) and Banca Popolare di Vicenza (I) and liabilities for €1, including the Veneto Banca’s Romanian and Moldovian branches. |
| June | Spain / Portugal | Banco Santander acquired 100% of the share capital of Banco Popular for a symbolic €1, including Banco Popular Portugal. |
| June | Spain | Bankia acquired Banco Mare Nostrum (BNM) for €825 million. |
| June | Spain | Banco Popular sold its remaining 49% stake in Targobank for €65 million to Crédit Mutuel (F). |
| April | UK / Spain | Barclay Bank (UK) sold its unit BarclaCard in Portugal and Spain to Spanish bancopopular-e rebranded as WiZink Bank. |
| April | UK / Spain / Portugal | Barclays Bank sold its retail banking business in Portugal to Bankinter (E). |
| March | Spain / Turkey | Dogus Group (TR) sold its 9.95% stake in Garanti bank to BBVA Group from Spain for TL 3.2 billion. |
| March | Switzerland | Retailer Coop sold its 10.4% share in Bank Coop for CHF 78 million to Basler Kantonalbank (BKB), which owns now 75.8%. In May 2017, Bank Coop was rebranded as Banque Cler. |
| March | Cyprus | Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) became rebranded as AstroBank. |
| February | Spain | Caixabank paid €644.5 million to raise its stake in Banco BPI (P) to 84.5% from 45%. |
| January | Italy | Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano merged building the new Gruppo Banco BPM. |
| January | The Netherlands | SNS Bank and SNS Real Group became rebranded as De Volksbank. |
| January | Estonia | Retailer Coop Eesti and Inbank (EST) bought Eesti Krediidipank, which was rebranded Coop Pank. |
| 2016 | ||
| December | France | Barclays Bank (UK) sold its subsidiary Barclays Bank France to AnaCap Capital. In May 2018, Barclays Bank France became rebranded as Milleis Banque. |
| December | Qatar / Turkey | Commercial Bank of Qatar (75%) bought the remaining 25% stake in ABank. |
| December | UK / USA | Lloyds Bank bought credit card firm MBNA for £1.9 billion from Bank of America (BofA). |
| December | Spain | Catalunya Banc was merged into BBVA. |
| June | Belgium | Crédit Mutuel Arkea (F) bought online bank Keytrade from Crelan Group (B). |
| June | Greece / Turkey | National Bank of Greece (NBG) sold its shares in Finansbank (TR) for €2.7 billion to Qatar National Bank (QA). |
| April | Portugal / Spain | Barclays Bank (UK) sold its Barclaycard consumer payments business in Portugal and Spain to Spanish bank Bancopopular-e owned by Värde Partners and Banco Popular (E). |
| 2015 | ||
| December | Portugal | The Portuguese state sold Banco Internacional do Funchal (BANIF) to Banco Santander Totta, excluding the Toxic Bank, Oitante. |
| September | Austria / Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia | Raiffeisen Bank International (A) agreed a deal with Alfa Bank (RUS) to sell RBI’s direct banking subsidiary ZUNO that is active in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. |
| September | Austria | Bank-Austria sold DC Bank to its majority-owned subsidiary card complete Service Bank. |
| September | Sweden / Denmark | Swedbank (S) has concluded an agreement with Danske Bank (DK) in Lithuania and Latvia on acquiring Danske’s retail banking business |
| July | Austria, SEE region | Advent International (Advent) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) acquired the Southeast Europe banking network (SEE network) of Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA) from the Austrian state. HGAA was rebranded as Addiko Bank. |
| June | Spain / UK | Banco Sabadell purchased TSB Bank (UK) for €2.35 billion. |
| April | Greece | Piraeus Bank absorbed the good part of Panellinia Bank. |
| March | UK / Spain | Lloyds Bank (UK) agreed to sell 50% of TSB Bank (UK) to Spanish Banco Sabadell for £1.7 billion. |
| March | Turkey | Citigroup (US) sold its 10% stake in Akbank |
| 2014 | ||
| November | Spain / Turkey | BBVA acquired an additional 14.9% of Garanti Bank (TR). After the acquisition, the stake of BBVA Group in Garanti is 39.9%. |
| September | Spain / UK | Caixabank acquired the retail business of Barclays Bank Espana for €800 million. |
| August | Portugal | Banco Espirito Santo (BES) was rescued by the Portuguese state, after reporting €3.6 billion in losses. BES rebranded as Novo Banco. |
| July | Spain | BBVA bought the bailout company Catalunya Banc for €1.2 billion from the Spanish state. |
| June | Spain | The Spanish state opted to sell NCG Banco to Banco Etcheverría, a Venezuelan-owned Spanish bank, for €1.03 billion. NCG Banco was rebranded as Abanca. |
| June | Greece | Alpha Bank bought the retail bank business of Citibank Greece, including Diners Club Greece. The integration was completed in July 2015. |
| June | Spain | Citibank Europe signed an agreement with Banco Popular to sell its consumer banking business in Spain. |
| June | Spain / Sweden, Denmark, Norway | Banco Santander Consumer Finance signed an agreement to acquire GE Money Bank AB and it consumer finance business in Sweden, Denmark and Norway for €700 million |
| 2013 | ||
| December | Greece | Piraeus Bank absorbed Millennium Bank Greece. |
| December | Denmark / Ireland | Danske Bank (DK) discontinued its personal banking business in Ireland by end-2013. |
| September | Austria / Switzerland | Swiss SIX Payment Services acquired interbank organisation PayLife from the Austrian banks for an undisclosed amount. |
| September | UK | TSB Bank carved out from Lloyds Banking Group as the UK’s newest major bank starting to operate on its own. |
| September | France, Spain | Crédit Agricole (F) disposed of its remaining 7.6% share interest in Bankinter (E) by means of an accelerated private placement with institutional investors. |
| July | Turkey | Commercial Bank of Qatar bought a 70.84% stake in Alternatifbank (ABank). |
| June | Greece | Alpha Bank absorbed Emporiki Bank of Greece. |
| June | Greece | Probank and FBBank were transferred under the umbrella of National Bank of Greece (NBG Group) and absorbed. |
| June | Greece | TT Hellenic Postbank and Proton Bank were transferred under the umbrella of Eurobank Group and absorbed in 2014. |
| May | Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania | UniCredit de-licensed its banking operations in the Baltic region refocusing there on leasing business. |
| May | Spain | Banco Santander absorbed its Spanish subsidiaries Banesto and Banco Banif. |
| May | Italy | Centrobanca merged into UBI Banca. |
| May | Austria | Hypo-Group Alpe-Adria sold its Austrian subsidiary, Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank, to investor Anadi Financial Holdings Pte. |
| April | Greece | The proposed merger of National Bank of Greece and EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA suspended their merger talks. |
| March | Cyprus / Greece | Cypriot banks Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic Bank and Cyprus Popular Bank sold their Greek subsidiaries to Piraeus Bank. |
| 2012 | ||
| October | France / Greece | Crédit Agricole sold Emporiki Bank to Alpha-Bank for a symbolic price (€1). |
| October | France / Greece | Société Générale sold its subsidiary Geniki Bank to Piraeus Bank. |
| October | Austria | AirPlus Austria split into DC Bank AG, 100% owned by Bank Austria, and AirPlus, jointly owned by Lufthansa AirPlus and Austrian Airlines. |
| July | Greece | Piraeus Bank bought a major part of ATEbank (excluding the bad bank part). |
| May | Spain | Bankia was partially nationalised by the government of Spain due to near collapse of the institution. |
| March | Portugal | BancoBIC from Angola acquired Banco Portugues de Negocios (BPN) from the Portuguese state for €40 million. |
| March | Spain | BBVA bought Unimm, a bailed-out bank located in Catalonia. |
| January | Spain | Dexia’s stake in Popular Banco Privada was sold by Dexia to Spanish Banco Popular. |
| 2011 | ||
| December | Belgium | Citigroup (US) sold Citibank Belgium to Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe (CMNE); rebranded as Beobank. |
| October | Belgium | Belgian State took over Dexia Bank Belgium due to near collapse of the institution; the bank was rebranded as Belfius Bank in March 2012. |
| August | Greece | Greece’s largest lenders, Alpha-Bank SA and EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA, confirmed plans to merge (failed March 2012). |
| March | Belgium | Co-operative Landbouwkrediet acquired CENTEA bank from KBC bank |
| 2010 | ||
| December | Spain | Merger of the seven Spanish saving banks Caja Madrid, Bancaja, La Caja de Canarias, Caja de Ávila, Caixa Laietana, Caja Segovia and Caja Rioja building Bankia, the fourth largest bank in Spain with 12 million customers. Bankia reports a total business volume of €486 billion with total assets of €328 billion. |
| November | Spain / Turkey | BBVA (E) acquired a 25.01% stake in Garanti Bank from Dogus Group and General Electric (GE) for €4.2 billion |
| October | Austria | Full Merger of Raiffeisen International and operational part of Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) completed building Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). |
| September | France | SocGen subsidiary Crédit du Nord completes Société Marseillaise de Crédit acquisition. |
| September | Germany / Luxembourg | DekaBank Luxembourg acquires WestLB Luxembourg subsidiary WestLB International S.A. |
| September | Germany | Deutsche Bank approves takeover offer for Postbank. |
| August | Germany / France | WestLB announces sale of its French subsidiary Banque d´Orsay S.A. to Oddo &Cie. |
| July | UK / Spain | RBS agrees sale of its RBS England and Wales and NatWest Scotland branch-based business to Santander UK. |
| July | Germany / Sweden / Spain | SEB announces sale of German retail banking business including card business to Santander for €555 million. |
| July | Netherlands | The legal merger between the retail banking unit of ABN Amro and Fortis Bank Nederland was completed. |
| July | Germany | Commerzbank closes sale of loan savings and financing subsidiary Allianz Dresdner Bauspar to Wüstenrot Bausparkasse |
| March | Germany | Deutsche Bank closes the acquisition of Sal. Oppenheim Group. |
| 2009 | ||
| December | Austria | Austrian government nationalizes Hypo-Group Alpe-Adria losses by getting all shares from German Bayern LB and other Austrian owners. |
| December | France / Belgium | SocGen completes acquisition of Dexia’s 20% interest in its subsidiary Crédit du Nord. |
| October | Netherlands / Germany | Deutsche Bank announces heads of agreement with the Dutch Ministry of Finance to acquire parts of ABN Amro’s commercial banking activities in the Netherlands. The assets remain the same as those in the original agreement announced in July 2008. |
| October | Netherlands / Switzerland | ING announces sale of Swiss private banking business to Julius Baer |
| October | France / Belgium | Société Générale and Dexia announce negotiations on SocGen’s acquisition of Dexia’s 20% interest in its subsidiary Crédit du Nord. |
| August | France | BCPE, the new central body of Caisses d’Epargne and Groupe Banque Populaire, becomes effective. |
| July | Switzerland / Germany | Vontobel Group announces acquisition of 100% of Commerzbank (Schweiz) AG. |
| May | France / Benelux | BNP Paribas completes acquisition of majority stakes in Fortis’s Belgian and Luxembourg banks. |
| May | Greece / France | Crédit Agricole increases stake in Emporiki Bank to 82.5% from 72.9%. |
| January | UK | Lloyds TSB completes acquisition of HBOS. |
| 2008 | ||
| November | Germany | Commerzbank announces agreement with Allianz to acquire the remaining 40% stake in Dresdner Bank in January 2009, earlier than originally assumed. |
| November | Portugal | The Potuguese Government seized Banco Portugues de Negocios (BPN). BPN became state-owned. |
| October | Norway / Iceland | SpareBank 1 banks announce acquisition of Glitnir Bank’s Norwegian subsidiary. |
| October | Greece | Piraeus Bank agrees to acquire 26.98% of Proton Bank. |
| September | Denmark | Nordea, Spar Nord Bank and Arbejdernes Landsbank agree to buy branches from failed Danish bank Roskilde Bank. |
| September | Sweden / Denmark | Handelsbanken announces acquisition of Danish bank Lokalbanken. |
| September | Benelux | Fortis abandons its planned purchase of ABN Amro as condition of its rescue by the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. |
| September | UK | Lloyds TSB and HBOS announce proposed merger to create the UK’s biggest domestic bank. |
| September | Germany | Deutsche Bank buys 29.75% of Postbank from Deutsche Post. |
| September | Germany | Commerzbank agrees €9.8 billion purchase of Dresdner Bank. |
| July | Spain/UK | Banco Santander announces agreed bid for UK mortgage and retail bank Alliance & Leicester. |
| July | Belgium/ Germany Netherlands | Fortis, ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank announce an agreement for Deutsche to acquire parts of ABN Amro’s Dutch commercial banking activities in the Netherlands for €709 million. |
| July | US/Germany/
France |
Citigroup announces agreement to sell its German retail bank to Crédit Mutuel for €4.9 billion ($7.7 billion) plus earnings. |
| April | Iceland | Kaupthing Bank and Reykjavik Savings Bank hf. (SPRON) announce merger discussions. |
| April | Spain/UK | Santander Consumer Finance agrees in principle to acquire the continental European consumer finance business of Royal Bank of Scotland, including activities in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria. |
| March | Austria | Santander Consumer Bank buys consumer finance outfit GE Money Bank Austria. |
| March | Spain/US | Banco Santander and GE reach preliminary agreement under which Santander acquires GE Money’s businesses in Germany, Finland and Austria and its card and auto financing business in the UK, while GE Commercial Finance acquires Interbanca, the Italian commercial bank assigned to Santander in ABN Amro’s asset distribution. |
| February | France/Spain | Bank of Spain authorizes Crédit Agricole to finalize the acquisition of 14.66% of Bankinter, adding to the 4.75% bought in the market by Crédit Agricole in recent months. |
| February | UK | Barclays announces an agreement to buy the UK credit card business of Morgan Stanley, including Goldfish. |
| January | Italy | Intesa Sanpaolo completes acquisition of 40.3% stake in Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, increasing its holding to 58.9% of CRF’s capital. |
| 2007 | ||
| November | Spain/Italy | Banco Santander announces agreement for the sale of Banca Antonveneta (acquired as part of the ABN Amro break-up) to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. |
| October | Italy | Merger of Capitalia into UniCredit becomes effective. |
| September | Portugal/
Belgium |
Fortis sells its remaining 4% stake in BCP (though continues bancassurance joint venture). |
| August | Germany | The takeover of Sachsen LB by LBBW, the largest German Landesbanken, is announced after problems from Sachsen LB’s exposure to turmoil in the international credit markets. |
| July | Austria | Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) acquires 38% of
FactorBank from Raiffeisen Zentralbank and 10% from Oberbank becoming the 100% shareholder. |
| July | Netherlands/
Greece |
ING and announces 10-year partnership with Piraeus Bank in Greece covering life, employee benefits and pension insurances and the acquisition of full ownership of ING Piraeus Life, the joint venture with Piraeus Bank. |
| July | Switzerland | Rabobank subsidiary Bank Sarasin and AIG Private Bank announce plans to combine their direct business with affluent clients and their business with independent financial providers, though not with the external asset managers, to form a new bank. |
| June | Germany | State of Berlin announces sale of its 81% stake in Landesbank Berlin to DSGV, the German savings banks group. |
| May | Germany/
Austria |
BayernLB to become majority shareholder in Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank. |
| May | Portugal | BCP’s hostile €4.3 billion bid for BPI fails. |
| May | Italy | Banca Popolare di Milano and Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna announce merger (however, terminated in June after the merger talks broke down). |
| May | Italy | UniCredit and Capitalia announce merger, creating largest bank by market capitalisation and fifth largest by total assets in the Eurozone. |
| April | Italy | Intesa Sanpaolo enters into negotiations with Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze for the acquisition of control of Carifirenze, the Florence savings bank that co-owns with Cetelem Italy’s largest consumer finance company. |
| April | Belgium/UK/
Netherlands |
Fortis, RBS and Santander announce intention to make a public offer for ABN Amro. |
| April | Netherlands/
UK |
Barclays and ABN Amro announce agreement on terms of merger. |
| 2006 | ||
| November | Denmark/
Finland |
Danske Bank announces the acquisition of Sampo Bank, Finland’s third-largest bank, for DKr30 billion in cash. |
| October | Germany | WestLB completes sale of HSH Nordbank shareholding to J.C. Flowers-advised Institutional Investors. |
| October | Italy | Banco Popolare di Verona e Novara (BPVN) and Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) announce merger. |
| August | Germany | WestLB AG announces plans to sell its shareholding in HSH Nordbank to a group of institutional investors in what would be the first part-privatisation of a Landesbank. WestLB holds over 24.1% of the capital of HSH Nordbank and almost 26.6% of the voting rights. |
| August | Italy | Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI announce merger plans. |
| August | Germany | Deutsche Bank announces agreement to acquire consumer finance specialist norisbank from DZ Bank Group. |
| June | Germany | Deutsche Bank acquires Berliner Bank from Landesbank Berlin. |
| June | France/Greece | Crédit Agricole S.A. launches offer for 100% of Emporiki Bank of Greece. |
| March | Portugal | Banco Comercial Português announces tender offer for Banco BPI. |
| March | France | Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d’Epargne
announce negotiations for the creation of Natixis, a jointly-owned company specialising in finance and investment banking and in banking services. |
| February | France/Italy | BNP Paribas announces intent to acquire Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). |
| 2005 | ||
| December | UK | Lloyds TSB announces an agreement to sell the credit card business of Goldfish to Morgan Stanley Bank International. |
| November | Germany | Commerzbank, already holder of a 31.8% stake, concludes purchase agreements to acquire 66.2% of the shares of Eurohypo. |
| October | Netherlands/
Belgium |
ING Belgium agrees to acquire Eural NV from Dexia subsidiary Dexia Bank Belgium. |
| October | Germany | Postbank announces plans to take control of German building society BHW Holding. |
| October | Denmark/
France |
Danske Bank agrees to sell consumer finance company HandelsFinans A/S to LaSer/Cofinoga, the French consumer finance company jointly owned by Galeries Lafayette and Cetelem (BNP Paribas). |
| September | Finland | OKO Bank, the listed subsidiary of the OP Bank Group, to acquire Pohjola, the Finnish insurance. |
| September | Belgium | Dexia rejects invitation from Fortis for a joint study of the possibilities of combining forces. |
| July | Italy | Italian insurer Unipol announces plans to launch an offer for BNL in competition with BBVA. |
| June | Norway/
Germany |
DnB NOR and Norddeutsche Landesbank (NORD/LB) announce the establishment of a joint venture bank in the Baltic region. |
| June | Italy/Germany | In a landmark cross-border European banking deal, UniCredit and HVB announce that their respective boards have approved the merger of the two banks. |
| May | Germany | WestLB announces plans to acquire Berlin-based private bank Weberbank from Bankgesellschaft Berlin. |
| May | Germany | Helaba (Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen) announces plans to acquire 100% of local savings bank Frankfurter Sparkasse (FraSpa). |
| April | Sweden/
Norway |
SEB announces offer for Norwegian bank Privatbanken. |
| April | Iceland/UK | Kaupthing Bank announces offer to acquire British investment bank & asset manager Singer & Friedlander. |
| March | Netherlands/
Italy |
ABN Amro announces plans for a cash offer for Banca Antonveneta. |
| March | France | BNP Paribas consumer finance subsidiary Cetelem to increase its stake in fellow French consumer finance business Cofinoga to 50%. |
| March | Spain/Italy | BBVA announces offer for Banca Nazaionale del Lavoro (BNL). |
| February | Sweden/UK | FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) announces EnterCard joint venture with Barclays to sell and distribute credit cards in the Nordic market. |
| January | France/
Portugal |
Crédit Agricole SA consumer credit subsidiary Sofinco to acquire household equipment finance business held by Banco Comercial Português’ subsidiary CrédiBanco. |
| 2004 | ||
| December | Switzerland | Vontobel Group and the Swiss Raiffeisen Group (representing Swiss co-operative banks) sign cooperation agreements with the Raiffeisen Group acquiring a 12.5% stake in Vontobel. |
| December | Denmark/
Ireland/UK |
Danske Bank signs agreement with National Australia Bank to purchase Northern Bank in Northern Ireland and National Irish Bank in the Republic of Ireland. |
| November | Norway | SpareBank 1 Midt-Norge announces offer to buy all shares of Romsdals Fellesbank ASA. |
| November | Iceland/
Norway |
Íslandsbanki to make voluntary offer for Norwegian commercial bank BNbank. |
| November | France/
Germany |
Société Générale announces negotiations with German
retailer and mail-order business Otto for the purchase of consumer lending subsidiary Hanseatic Bank. |
| November | Belgium/Italy | Dexia and Sanpaolo IMI hold unsuccessful discussions about a possible deal. |
| October | Germany | Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Germany’s largest public sector bank by total assets at end-2003, to take over Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz ahead of abolition of state guarantees for Landesbanken from July 2005. |
| September | Netherlands/
Germany |
ING agreement in principle with Sal. Oppenheim about the sale of German subsidiary ING BHF-Bank. |
| July | Portugal/
Belgium |
BCP and Fortis announce plans for a joint-venture company, Milleniumbcp-Fortis Insurance Group. |
| July | Spain/UK | Grupo Santander, Spain’s largest banking group, announces an agreed £8.9 billion (€13.4 billion) bid for Abbey, the UK’s sixth largest banking group. |
| July | France | Agreement between state-owned Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) and cooperative Caisse d’Epargne Group to restructure their long-standing partnership, creating on some measures the third largest French banking group. |
| July | UK | HSBC and Marks & Spencer sign a joint venture by which HSBC will acquire 100% of M&S’s financial services business for an estimated £763 million; M&S will retain a 50% interest in profits. |
| June | Iceland/
Denmark |
Kaupthing, Iceland’s largest banking group, announces acquisition of Danish commercial bank FIH from Swedbank in a transaction which will double its size. |
| 2003 | ||
| December | Spain | Banco Sabadell, the fourth largest commercial banking group in Spain, wins the battle to buy fellow Spanish bank Banco Atlántico. |
| October | Ireland | Royal Bank of Scotland acquires Irish mortgage lender First Active. |
| July | Germany | HVB announces sale of Norisbank, its consumer credit arm, to DZ Bank. |
| May | Iceland | Kaupthing Bank and Búnadarbanki Íslands merge to form Iceland’s largest banking group. |
| May | Spain/UK | Barclays, the UK’s third largest banking group, announces an agreed offer by its Spanish subsidiary for Spanish bank Banco Zaragozano. |
| May | France | French authorities sanction acquisition of Crédit Lyonnais by Crédit Agricole, to form largest banking group in France and the eurozone. |
| May | Germany | Royal Bank of Scotland acquires credit card portfolio of Santander Direkt. |
| March | Norway | Merger proposed between DnB and Gjensidige NOR, leading to the creation of DnB NOR, Norway’s largest banking group. |
| January | Denmark | SEB Kort of Sweden acquires the private label portfolio of Magasin du Nord stores. |
| January | France | PPR retail group announces break-up of its Finaref division and sale of the card business to Cetelem and Sofinco (Crédit Agricole). |
| 2002 | ||
| October | Norway | SEB Kort of Sweden to purchase Europay Norge. |
| May | Norway | DnB announces merger with Storebrand, Norway’s largest insurance company. Merger abandoned in July after failure to agree terms. |
| March | Italy | Banca di Roma (now Capitalia) agrees merger with Bipop-Carire, troubled medium-sized bank. |
| 2001 | ||
| December | Ireland/
Netherlands |
Rabobank agrees to purchase Ireland’s state-owned ACCBank. |
| December | Italy | San Paolo IMI agrees merger with Cardine, large regional bank. |
| October | Greece | National Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank, Greece’s two largest banks, announce merger. However, plans abandoned in January 2002 after failure to agree management structure. |
| July | Sweden | Nordea (Nordbanken) announces acquisition of Postgirot Bank from the Swedish Post. |
| June | France | Caisse des Dépôts and Caisse d’Epargne pool activities in a joint venture company – EULIA. |
| June | Germany | Co-operative central banks GZ Bank and DG Bank agree to merger, forming DZ Bank. |
| April | Germany | Allianz, Germany’s largest insurance company, announces acquisition of Dresdner Bank. |
| April | UK | Halifax and Bank of Scotland announce merger, forming HBOS. |
| March | Belgium | Acquisition of Artesia by Dexia. |
| February | Sweden | SEB and Swedbank announce merger plans; withdrawn in September 2001 following concessions required by the European Commission’s competition authorities. |
| 2000 | ||
| October | Norway (Nordic) | Acquisition of Christiania by MeritaNordbanken (Nordea). |
| October | Denmark | Acquisition of RealDanmark by Danske. |
| August | UK | Barclays announces acquisition of Woolwich, the UK mortgage bank. |
| July | Austria/
Germany |
HVB’s acquisition of Bank Austria announced. |
| April | France/UK | HSBC’s acquisition of Crédit Commercial de France announced. |
| March | Denmark (Nordic region) | Acquisition of Unidanmark by MeritaNordbanken (Nordea) announced. |
| February | UK | Acquisition of NatWest by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). |
| January | Portugal | BES and BPI announce merger. But plans collapse in March 2000. |
| 1999 | ||
| November | Portugal | Break-up of Champalimaud group agreed: Banco Pinto e Sotto Mayor to BCP; Banco Totta & Açores and Crédito Predial Português to SCH; Mundial Confiança to CGD |
| October | Finland | Merger of Leonia, Finland’s third largest bank, and Sampo, largest Finnish insurer, announced. |
| October | Spain | Merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV) and Argentaria to create BBVA. |
| August | France | BNP wins control of Paribas. |
| June | Italy | Acquisition of Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) by Banca Intesa announced. |
| March | Norway | DnB announces acquisition of Postbanken. |
| January | Spain | Merger of Banco Santander and Banco Central Hispano (BCH) to create Santander Central Hispano. |
| Note: mergers and acquisitions may take several months from announcement to completion (or not) and then integration. In most cases, date in table is that of merger announcement. Table concentrates on most recent mergers and acquisitions; recent transactions involving CEE banks (including Turkish banks) tabulated in following section. | ||
| Source: Yearbooks research. | ||
6.4 Central and Eastern Europe
The banking markets in central and eastern Europe (CEE) have already been the centre of interest for around 30 years. Many international banking groups, mostly from western Europe, found their way to this region expanding their banking activities and their profits. Leading European bank groups in the CEE region include many of the leading banking groups on pan-European level, e.g.:
- Austria: RBI Group, Erste Bank Group
- Belgium: KBC Group
- Denmark Danske Bank Group is going to exit the Baltic region
- Finland: Nordea is going to exit the Baltic region
- France: Société Generale Group, Crédit Agricole Group, BNP Paribas Group
- Germany: Commerzbank in Poland
- Greece: NBG, EFG Eurobank, Alpha Group and Piraeus Bank in the SEE region
- Hungary: OTP Bank Group
- Italy: UniCredit Group, Intesa Sanpaolo Group
- Portugal: Millennium BCP Group
- Spain: Banco Santander Group
- Sweden: Swedbank and SEB in the Baltic region
- The Netherlands: ING Group
- Russia: Sberbank Group, VTB Group
- USA: Citibank Group
From a general point of view their search was initially successful: After some wild and stormy years and before the financial crisis, the CEE became the most profitable and fastest growing banking region in Europe. Several of western banking groups earned substantial parts of their profits in CEE and were able to compensate decreasing margins in their home countries. Particularly, banks from smaller countries took the chance to grow their business out of saturated markets.
Following the financial crisis, the majority of international banks remain committed to the region. However, country – and/or parent-specific – circumstances have triggered some strategic re-shuffling: UniCredit exited Kazakhstan, reduced its stake in Poland and merged its CZ/SK units; KBC, Erste and Commerzbank disposed of the CIS sub-region.
For more details regarding the European banking groups please refer to the individual country profile of that country where the head office of the banking group is located.
Mergers and Acquisitions in CEE Banking
| 6.2.4: Mergers and Acquisitions in CEE Banking | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Country | Merger/Acquisition |
| 2023 | ||
| November | Serbia | Eurobank sold its Serbian subsidiary, Eurobank Direktna, to AIK Banka Beograd |
| 2022 | ||
| August | Hungary | MKB completed the takeover of Sberbank Hungary |
| July | Bulgaria | KBC Bank acquired Raiffeisen Bank (Bulgaria) EAD |
| April | Serbia | Raiffeisen Bank acquired Crédit Agricole Serbia |
| March | Serbia | AIK Banka acquired Sberbank Serbia |
| March | Slovenia | NLB acquired Sberbank Slovenia |
| 2021 | ||
| November | Croatia; Bosnia & Herzegovina; Hungary; Serbia; Slovenia | Sberbank Europe announces sale of subsidiaries to Serbia’s AIK Bank, Slovenia’s Gorenjska Banka and Agri Europe Cyprus |
| October | Slovakia | ČSOB Bank merged with OTP Bank Slovakia |
| July | Serbia | Eurobank merges its Serbian unit with Direktna Banka |
| June | Slovenia | OTP Bank acquires Nova KBM |
| April | Serbia | Integration of MTS banka into Banka Postanska Stedionica |
| February | Czech Republic | Raiffeisen Bank announces purchase of Equa Bank |
| 2020 | ||
| December | Poland | Pekao acquires Idea Bank |
| December | Hungary | MBH acquires majority stake in MHB and controlling interest in Budapest Bank |
| October | Hungary | Merger of Budapest Bank, MKB Bank and savings group Takarekbank (MTB) |
| May | Lithuania | Revolut launches as licensed bank |
| February | Serbia | Komercijalna Banka acquired by Slovenia’s Nova Ljubljanska banka |
| February | Slovakia | KBC Group acquires OTP Banka Slovensko |
| February | Slovenia | Nova KBM acquires Abanka |
| January | Romania | National Bank of Greece sells its Romanian operations |
| 2019 | ||
| October | Estonia | Danske Bank abd Handelsbanken exit Estonia |
| September | Serbia | OTP Group acquires Société Générale Bank; renamed OTP Bank Serbia |
| July | Montenegro | OTP Bank acquires Société Générale Banka |
| July | Moldova | OTP Bank acquires Mobiasbanca |
| June | Bulgaria | Eurobank acquires Postbank from Piraeus |
| May | Slovenia | OTP Bank acquires SKB Banka |
| May | Poland | Bank Millennium acquired EuroBank. |
| February | Serbia | PPF Group acquires Telenor Banka |
| January | Bulgaria | Merger of SG Expressbank and dskbank |
| 2018 | ||
| September | Poland | BZ WBK became rebranded as Santander Bank Polska. |
| September | Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania | Private equity investor Blackstone (US) acquired a 60% stake in Luminor Bank for $1 billion from Nordea Group (S) and DNB Group (N), which both retained a 20% stake, respectively. |
| May | Romania / Greece | Banca Transilvania acquired a 99.15% majority stake in Bancpost from Eurobank EFG (GR) for €178.67 million. |
| April | Serbia / Greece | Direktna Banka completed the acquisition of the banking and leasing operations of Piraeus Bank (GR) in Serbia. |
| April | Poland / Austria | RBI Group (A) agreed to sell the core banking operations of Raiffeisen Bank Polska for €775 million to Bank BGZ BNP Paribas. |
| 2017 | ||
| December | Poland / Germany | BZ WBK bought Deutsche Bank Polska’s core bank business from Deutsche Bank (D). |
| December | Hungary / Serbia | OTP Bank (H) acquired Vojvodjanska banka (SRB) from National Bank of Greece (GR) for €125 million. |
| October | Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania | Nordea (S) and DNB Bank (N) merged their respective subsidiaries in the Baltic region to become Luminor Bank. |
| August | Slovakia | Prima Banka and Sberbank Slovensko merged. The enlarged bank was rebranded as Prima Banka Slovensko. |
| June | Bulgaria | KBC Bank (B) bought UBB Bank (BG) for €610 million from National bank of Greece (GR) |
| June | Romania | Intesa Sanpaolo Group (I) took over Veneto Banca’s Romanian branch. |
| May | Croatia | OTP Bank Group (H) bought Spitska Banka from Société Générale (F) and absorbed it by end-December 2018. |
| May | Poland / Italy | UniCredit Group (I) sold a 32.80% stake in Bank Pekao to Polish institutional investors. UniCredit retained a 6.26% stake. |
| April | Serbia | AIK Banka bought Alfa Bank Srbija from Alfa Group (GR), rebranded as Jubanka. |
| February | Serbia / France | Direktna Banka bought Findomestik Banka from BNP Paribas Group (F). |
| January | Slovenia | Nova KBM absorbed KBS Banka. |
| January | Estonia | Coop Eesti, and Inbank (EST) acquired a majority stake in Eesti Krediidipank. The bank became rebranded as Coop Pank. |
| 2016 | ||
| February | Serbia / Cyprus | Expobank (CZ) acquired Marvin Bank Beograd (SRB) from its Cypriot owners. |
| December | Serbia | National Bank of Greece (NBG) sold its subsidiary United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) to Belgian KBC Group for €610 million. |
| September | Slovenia | Merger of Nova KBM with its 100% subsidiary Poštna banka Slovenije (PBS). |
| May | Poland / France | Merger of Bank BGZ BNP Paribas with Sygma Bank Polska and LaSer Bank Polska. |
| April | Poland | GE Electric Investment (PL) sold the Bank BPH core bank business excluding the mortgage bank to Alior Bank for €400 million. |
| April | Slovenia | Nova KBM Group sold by the Slovenian sate for €250 million to investment fund Apollo Global Management (US) and the EBRD. |
| March | Bulgaria | Eurobank Bulgaria (Postbank) bought Alpha Bank Bulgaria and absorbed it. |
| January | Romania | Nextebank acquired 54.79% of the shares of Banca Comerciale Carpatica (BCC). The enlarged Nextebank became rebranded as Patria Bank (March). |
| 2015 | ||
| December | Slovakia | Sberbank Europe sold its 99.5% stake in Sberbank Slovensko to Penta Investments. The transaction was closed in July 2016. |
| September | Hungary | Erste Bank Hungary bought the retail banking and card business of the Citibank branch Hungary. |
| September | Czech Republic / Slovakia | Raiffeisen Bank International (A) sold its direct banking subsidiary Zuno to Russian Alfa Bank. Zuno is active in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. |
| June | Romania / Austria | UniCredit Bank Austria bought the 45.06% stake of Tiriac Group and became 95.6% owner of the Romanian UniCredit Titriac Bank which was consequently rebranded as UniCredit Bank. |
| April | Poland / France | Merger of Bank BGŻ with BNP Paribas Polska, rebranded as Bank BGZ BNP Paribas. |
| April | Romania / Austria | Banca Transilvania bought 100% of Volksbank Romania from OeVAG (A). The intended merger is planned for early 2016. |
| February | Hungary | The Hungarian state bought Budapest Bank from GE Capital (US) for $700 million. A merger with state-owned MKB Bank is likely. |
| January | SEE region | The member banks of the former Hypo-Group Alpe-Adria in the SEE region became rebranded as Addiko banks owned by Addiko Bank Group (A). |
| 2014 | ||
| November | Latvia | The Latvian government sold its 75% stake in Citadele Banka to investor Ripplewood Advisors and other international investors. |
| October | Slovenia | Merger of Abanka Vipa and Banka Celje. The enlarged bank was rebranded as Abanka. |
| September | Hungary | BayernLB sold its subsidiary MKB Bank to the Hungarian state for €55 million. |
| January | Czech Republic | German LBBW Bank sold its Czech subsidiary LBBW Bank CZ to Russian Expobank. LBBW Bank CZ was rebranded as Expobank CZ. |
| 2013 | ||
| December | Ukraine | UniCredit merged its subsidiaries in Ukraine. |
| December | Czech Republic / Slovakia | Cross-Border merger of the Czech and the Slovak UniCredit Banks |
| May | Kazakhstan | UniCredit disposed of its Kazakhstan operations. |
| April | Ukraine | Erste Group sold its member bank in Ukraine to Fidorbank (UA) for €63 million. |
| 2012 | ||
| December | Slovenia | KBC signed an agreement with Republic of Slovenia on the sale of its 22% minority shareholding in NLB Group for around €2.8 million, with the deal closed in March 2013. |
| June | Turkey | DenizBank was sold by Dexia Group to Russian Sberbank. Sberbank will hold 99.85% of DenizBank for TL6.5bn ($3.6bn). |
| May | Poland | Merger of Bank Zachwodny BZ WBK and Kredyt Bank announced. Banco Santander will hold 76.5% of the merged bank and KBC about 16.4%. |
| February | Poland | Banco Santander agreed to buy KBC’s Kredyt Bank and combine it with its BZ WBK bank to create Poland’s third-biggest lender. The sale of Kredyt bank is part of KBC’s strategy of repaying the €7 billion of rescue funds KBC received from the Belgian government during the credit crisis. |
| January | Slovakia | Dexia Banka Slovensko sold by Dexia Group to private equity Penta Investments, the bank was rebranded as Prima Banka. |
| 2011 | ||
| September | Austria/Russia | Austrian OeVAG sells 100% of VBI and their Volksbank member banks in the CEE region to Russian Sberbank for €505 million (excluding Volksbank Romania). Deal closure: February 2012. |
| June | Poland and Greece/Austria | Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) buys a 70% stake in Polbank EFG from Greece Eurobank EFG for €460 million. Deal closure: April 2012. Raiffeisen Bank PL and Polbank are expected to merge. |
| 2010 | ||
| September | Poland/Ireland/ Spain | AIB (IRL) announces the sale of its 70.36% shareholding in Bank Zachodni WBK to Banco Santander for €3.01 billion. |
| August | Norway/ Germany/ Baltics/Poland | DnB NOR exercises option to acquire NORD/LB’s 49% stake in their joint venture DnB NORD, which has subsidiary banks in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. |
| 2009 | ||
| December | Belgium/
Slovakia |
As part of its internal streamlining, KBC acquires the outstanding 49.54% stake in ČSOB Slovakia held by ČSOB Group (Czech Republic), taking ownership in ČSOB Slovakia to 100%. |
| August | Poland | Merger plan between Bank BPH and GE Money Bank completed. |
| May | Hungary | HSBC to terminate retail lending and end its activities in Hungary within three years. |
| April | Latvia | EBRD takes a stake of 25% plus one share in Parex Bank as part of a support package. |
| 2008 | ||
| August | Slovenia/UK | Private equity firm Apax Partners enters exclusive negotiations to buy KBC’s 30.6% interest in NLB. |
| July | Belgium/Austria/Slovakia | KBC closes acquisition of Istrobanka from BAWAG P.S.K. |
| July | Czech Republic/Austria | Completion of merger of Czech Raiffeisenbank and eBanka, acquired by Raiffeisen International in 2006. |
| June | Poland/Italy/US | UniCredit finalizes the sale of a majority shareholding in Bank BPH to GE Money. |
| April | Netherlands/
Poland |
Rabobank receives regulatory clearance to raise its holding in BGZ to a majority by acquiring the 12.87% stake held by EBRD. |
| March | Slovakia/
Belgium/Austria |
KBC acquires from BAWAG P.S.K. full ownership of Istrobanka, the 10th largest bank in terms of assets in Slovakia. |
| 2007 | ||
| December | Netherlands/
Turkey |
ING closes transaction to acquire Oyak Bank. |
| December | Belgium/
Bulgaria |
KBC closes acquisition of a majority stake in Economic and Investment Bank in Bulgaria. |
| September | Belgium/
Bulgaria |
KBC announces the acquisition of 75% of Economic and Investment Bank, one of the top ten banks in Bulgaria, for €295 million. |
| August | Turkey/Greece | Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency does not approve proposed joint venture between Anadolu Group and Alpha Bank of Greece to control the financial assets of Anadolu Group, including ABank. |
| August | Italy/US/Poland | UniCredit and GE Money sign agreement for the sale to GE of a majority shareholding in Bank BPH. |
| June | Netherlands/
Turkey |
ING announces acquisition of Oyak Bank, a top 10 Turkish bank, for €2.0 billion. |
| June | Belgium/Serbia | KBC finalizes acquisition of A Banka. |
| April | Turkey | Turkey’s Halkbank, number two state-owned bank, starts initial public offering of approximately 25%. |
| April | Italy/Bulgaria | The Bulgarian subsidiaries of UniCredit Group – Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank – are merged into “UniCredit Bulbank”. |
| April | France/Albania | Société Générale announces acquisition of 75% of Banka Popullore in Albania |
| March | Belgium/Poland | Fortis finalizes the acquisition of 100% of Dominet Bank in Poland. |
| March | France/
Macedonia |
Société Générale announces acquisition of 53% of Ohridska banka in Macedonia. |
| January | Belgium/Serbia | KBC announces agreement to acquire a majority stake in A Banka through a public takeover bid. |
| January | Austria/Croatia | Erste Bank signs share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of Diners Club in Croatia. |
| 2006 | ||
| December | Portugal/Poland | Banco Comercial Português (BCP) completes tender offer for up to 16% of the share capital of Bank Millennium in Poland, increasing its participation to 65.51% of the share capital and voting rights. |
| December | Belgium/Czech Republic | KBC increases its stake in CSOB from 89.9% to 97.5% after exercising its call option on shares held by the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). |
| December | Norway/Poland/Germany | DnB NOR signs agreement to acquire 76.3% of BISE Bank in Poland through DnB NORD (51% owned by DnB NOR and 49% owned by NORD/LB). |
| October | Italy/Bosnia & Herzegovina | Banca Intesa announces the acquisition of a majority stake in LTG banka in Bosnia and Herzegovina. |
| October | Italy/Albania | Sanpaolo IMI announces acquisition of a majority stake in the American Bank of Albania (ABA), No 1 in Albania in customer loans and No 3 in deposits. |
| October | Belgium/Turkey | Dexia completes the acquisition of a controlling interest in Denizbank. |
| October | Italy/Turkey | Koçbank, UniCredit’s Turkish JV, and Yapı Kredi complete merger. |
| October | Austria/Romania | Erste Bank finalizes acquisition of Banca Comerciala Romana. |
| September | Greece/Bulgaria | Eurobank EFG announces acquisition of DZI Bank in Bulgaria. |
| September | Greece/Serbia | National Bank of Greece (NBG) announces agreement with for acquisition of Vojvodjanska Banka, the sixth largest Serbian bank. |
| September | Austria/Romania | Merger of HVB Bank Romania and Banca Tiriac, the Romanian subsidiaries of Bank Austria Creditanstalt. |
| August | Greece/Turkey | National Bank of Greece (NBG) becomes the new majority shareholder of Finansbank. |
| August | Hungary/
Montenegro |
OTP Bank submits binding bid for the purchase of a majority shareholding in the Montenegrin Crnogorska komercijalna banka AD (CKB), the largest player in the Montenegrin banking sector. |
| July | Romania | Romania selects Hungary’s OTP Bank and National Bank of Greece as finalists for the sale of CEC. |
| July | Italy/Serbia | Sanpaolo IMI signs agreement for the acquisition of a
87.39% stake in Panonska Banka from the Serbia Finance Department. |
| July | Austria/Czech Republic | Raiffeisen International announces acquisition of the Czech bank eBanka from PPF Group. |
| June | Italy/France/
Croatia |
Société Générale finalizes acquisition of Splitska Banka in Croatia. |
| May | Greece/Turkey | Eurobank EFG announces an agreement to acquire 70% in Tekfenbank. |
| May | Belgium/Turkey | Dexia announces plans to acquire a controlling interest in DenizBank. |
| May | Belgium/NL/
Hungary |
KBC finalizes acquisition of ABN Amro’s 40.2% stake in K&H Bank in Hungary, raising its shareholding from 59.4% to 99.6%. |
| May | Belgium/
Slovenia |
KBC announces intention to limit its responsibility towards NLB – the largest Slovenian bank in which it holds a 34% stake – until further notice to that of a pure financial investor in NLB Bank. |
| April | Greece/Turkey | National Bank of Greece agrees to acquire a controlling shareholding in Finansbank. |
| April | Italy/France/
Croatia |
UniCredit announces the sale by BA-CA of the Croatian subsidiary HVB Splitska banka to Société Générale. |
| April | Italy/Austria/
Poland |
UniCredit signs agreement with Polish state treasury aimed at ensuring that Bank BPH remains an independent bank in the Polish market. |
| March | Greece/Serbia | EFG Eurobank acquires 100% of the Nacionalna Sedionica Banka (NSB). |
| February | Netherlands/
Turkey |
Turkish pension fund SPF, the largest shareholder of Sekerbank in Turkey, backs out of selling 36.5% of its shares in Sekerbank to Rabobank. |
| January | Sweden/Poland | SEB announces the sale of its shares in Bank Ochrony Srodowiska S.A. and plans to open a branch in Poland after failing to reach a satisfactory ownership structure following its bid for all remaining shares in the bank in September 2005. |
| 2005 | ||
| December | Austria/Romania | Erste Bank wins bid to acquire majority stake in Banca Comerciala Romana. |
| December | Italy/Albania | Sanpaolo IMI signs agreement for the acquisition of a stake of 80% in Banca Italo Albanese (BIA), from Capitalia and the Albanian Finance Ministry (40% each). |
| October | Austria/Portugal/Romania | Erste Bank and BCP shortlisted by Romanian Government to acquire majority stake in Banca Comerciala Romana, the largest Romanian bank. |
| October | France/
Montenegro |
Société Générale announces acquisition of 64.44% of Podgoricka Banka, sold by Republic of Montenegro. |
| September | Sweden/Poland | SEB announces offer for the 52.69% of the shares in Polish bank Bank Ochrony Srodowiska it does not own. |
| September | Italy/Bosnia & Herzegovina | Banca Intesa signs share purchase agreement for the acquisition of a majority stake in UPI Banka. |
| August | US/Turkey | GE Consumer Finance and Dogus Holding A.S announce agreement regarding the acquisition by GECF of a 25.5% share in Garanti Bank, Turkey’s third largest private bank. |
| August | Italy/Balkans | Banca Intesa aunches takeover bid for ABS Banka in Bosnia and Herzegovina and finalizes bid for acquisition of 90% of Delta Banka in Serbia and Montenegro |
| June | Norway/Baltics/ Germany | DnB NOR and Norddeutsche Landesbank (NORD/LB) announce the establishment of a joint venture bank in the Baltic region, serving the Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish markets. |
| May | Austria/Romania | Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) announces plans to merge its Romanian subsidiary HVB Bank Romania with Banca Tiriac, Romania’s 11th largest bank. |
| May | Austria/Serbia | Erste Bank receives approval to buy Serbia’s
Novosadska banka. |
| April | France/Poland | Société Générale announces acquisition of Polish consumer credit company Eurobank. |
| April | France/Serbia | Crédit Agricole SA announces talks on taking majority stake in Serbian bank Meridian Bank A.D. |
| April | France/Romania | BNP Paribas subsidiary Cetelem to acquire Romanian consumer credit company Credisson. |
| April | Belgium/Turkey | Fortis announces plans to acquire Disbank, Turkey’s seventh largest privately owned bank. |
| February | Sweden/Estonia | FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) to buy out minority shareholders in Baltic subsidiary Hansabank. |
| February | Italy/Bosnia | Banca Intesa announces tender offer for ABS Banka, Sarajevo (offer subsequently fails to meet threshold of reshold of 50% plus one share). |
| January | Italy/Turkey | UniCredit announces that its Turkish joint venture
Koç Financial Services (KFS) is to acquire a majority stake in Turkish bank Yapi Kredi. |
| January | Italy/Serbia | Banca Intesa announces exclusive negotiations for the acquisition of Delta Banka in Serbia and Montenegro. |
| January | Austria/Slovakia | Erste Bank exercises call option to purchase remaining 19.99% of Slovakian subsidiary Slovenská sporitelna. |
| 2004 | ||
| December | Netherlands/
Turkey |
Rabobank announces plans for a strategic partnership with Turkish bank Sekerbank. |
| November | France/Turkey | BNP Paribas signs share purchase agreement with the Çolakoglu Group to acquire a 50% stake in TEB Mali. |
| November | Finland/Latvia | Sampo Bank to acquire Maras Banka in Latvia. |
| November | Austria/Serbia | Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) signs agreement to purchase Eksimbanka, headquartered in Belgrade. |
| November | Austria/Bulgaria | Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) signs agreement to purchase Hebros Bank in Bulgaria. |
| September | Netherlands/
Poland |
Rabobank Group announces that it intends to acquire a 35% interest in the Polish bank BGZ. |
| June | Nordic/Poland | Nordea to acquire Lithuania operations of KBC’s Polish subsidiary Kredyt Bank. |
| 2003 | ||
| September | Hungary | Erste Bank of Austria acquires Postabank. |
| May | Bulgaria | OTP of Hungary acquires DSK, formerly State Savings Bank of Bulgaria. |
Notes:
|
||
| Source: Yearbooks research. | ||
| 6.3.2: Largest Western European Banks by Total Assets (€bn) 2024 | |
|---|---|
| Bank | Assets €bn |
| HSBC / UK | 2,787.4 |
| BNP Paribas / France | 2,704.9 |
| Credit Agricole SA / France | 2,601.7 |
| Barclays / UK | 1,793.3 |
| Grupo Santander / Spain | 1,837.1 |
| BPCE / France | 1,584.6 |
| Societe Generale / France | 1,573.5 |
| Deutsche Bank / Germany | 1,387.2 |
| Credit Mutuel-CIC / France | 1,169.2 |
| UBS / Switzerland | 1,048.8 |
| Lloyds Bank / UK | 1,071.0 |
| Intesa Sanpaolo / Italy | 933.3 |
| ING / Netherlands | 1,020.5 |
| Standard Chartered / UK | 785.0 |
| UniCredit / Italy | 784.0 |
| NatWest / UK | 836.2 |
| DZ Bank / Germany | 659.6 |
| Rabobank / Netherlands | 629.3 |
| Nordea / Nordics | 594.8 |
| CaixaBank/ Spain | 631.0 |
| KfW / Germany (not in card business) | 545.4 |
| Credit Suisse / Switzerland | 528.9 |
| Commerzbank / Germany | 554.6 |
| BBVA / Spain | 468.3 |
| ABN Amro / Netherlands | 385.5 |
| Danske Bank / Denmark | 498.2 |
| Note: most banks in Europe report under IFRS. Credit Suisse reports under US GAAP. | |
| Source: individual financial reports. | |
| 6.4.2: Largest CEE Banks by Total Assets (€bn) 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bank | Country | Assets €bn |
| PKO BP / investors, state-owned | Poland | 123.0 |
| Bank Pekao / investors | Poland | 78.3 |
| CSOB / KBC | Czechia | 76.5 |
| Ceska Sporitelna / Erste Bank | Czechia | 80.8 |
| Santander Bank Polska (formerly Bank Zachodni WBK) | Poland | 71.3 |
| ING Bank Slaski / ING | Poland | 61.0 |
| mBank / Commerzbank | Poland | 57.6 |
| BGK / state-owned | Poland | 52.2 |
| Komercni Banka / SocGen | Czechia | 61.1 |
| OTP / investors | Hungary | 46.5 |
| BGZ BNP Paribas / BNP Paribas | Poland | 39.2 |
| Banca Transilvania / investors | Romania | 37.2 |
| UniCredit Czechia / UniCredit | Czechia | 39.0 |
| MBH Bank / investors | Hungary | 31.6 |
| Bank Millennium / Millennium BPC | Poland | 32.6 |
| Slovenska Sporitelna / Erste Group | Slovakia | 26.4 |
| Raiffeisenbank / Raiffeisen Bank Int. | Czechia | 32.0 |
| VUB Banka / Intesa Sanpaolo | Slovakia | 25.2 |
| Tatra Banka / Raiffeisen Bank Int. | Slovakia | 20.9 |
| BCR / Erste Group | Romania | 24.4 |
| Alior Bank / private investors | Poland | 21.8 |
| Zagrebacka Banka / UniCredit | Croatia | 21.2 |
| UBB Bank / KBC Group | Bulgaria | 17.4 |
| Citibank Handlowy / Citigroup | Poland | 17.0 |
| Casa de Economii si Consemnaiuni (CEC) / state-owned | Romania | 16.9 |
| DSK Bank / OTP Group | Bulgaria | 16.8 |
| BRD / Societe Generale | Romania | 17.4 |
| UniCredit Bulbank / UniCredit | Bulgaria | 16.4 |
| NLB Nova Ljubljanska banka / BNY Mellon & state-owned | Slovenia | 17.0 |
| Privredna Banka / Intesa Sanpaolo | Croatia | 17.0 |
| Moneta Money Bank / Investors | Czechia | 19.7 |
| CSOB Slovakia / KBC Group | Slovakia | 15.3 |
| K&H Bank / KBC Group | Hungary | 15.3 |
| ING Bank / ING | Romania | 15.8 |
| Banca Raiffeisen (BRR) / Raiffeisen Bank Int. | Romania | 16.6 |
| UniCredit Bank / UniCredit | Romania | 14.7 |
| Erste & Steiermarkische Banka / Erste Group | Croatia | 15.1 |
| UBH UniCredit Bank / UniCredit | Hungary | 13.1 |
| Erste Bank Hungary / Erste Group | Hungary | 12.7 |
| Raiffeisen Bank / Raiffeisen Bank Int. | Hungary | 11.7 |
| PPF Banka / PPF Group | Czechia | 14.0 |
| OTP Banka (previously Nova KBM) | Slovenia | 14.9 |
| CIB Bank / Intesa Sanpaolo | Hungary | 8.8 |
| Note: all non-euro asset figures converted into euros at ECB average exchange rate 2024. | ||
| Note: chart focuses on EU countries. Excludes banks in Baltic states, Russia and Turkey. | ||
| Note: labels include parent / majority-owner if bank is part of a larger banking group. | ||
| Source: individual financial reports. | ||
| 6.4.3: Total Assets of International Bank Groups in CEE region (€bn) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank | Country | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | GR 2024 |
| Sberbank | Russia | 435.1 | 509.2 | 620.7 | 775.4 | 664.4 | -14.31% |
| VTB Bank Group | Russia | 219.3 | 262.1 | 362.1 | 435.6 | 393.8 | -9.59% |
| Erste Group | Austria | 122.5 | 134.1 | 142.6 | 151.7 | 353.7 | 133.13% |
| UniCredit Group | Italy | 104.0 | 105.9 | 115.0 | 145.4 | 133.3 | -8.34% |
| Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) | Austria | 96.3 | 114.5 | 125.5 | 126.6 | 199.9 | 57.81% |
| KBC Bank Group | Belgium | 94.8 | 105.6 | 108.7 | 117.6 | 124.5 | 5.88% |
| PKO BP | Poland | 84.8 | 91.6 | 87.6 | 115.8 | 123.0 | 6.19% |
| Sociéte Générale Group | France | 76.4 | 79.4 | 86.4 | 96.1 | 78.5 | -18.27% |
| OTP Bank Group | Hungary | 66.4 | 76.9 | 83.8 | 103.7 | 103.7 | 0.00% |
| Intesa Sanpaolo Group | Italy | 45.8 | 59.7 | 60.9 | 62.1 | 62.1 | 0.00% |
| Note: total assets on a consolidated rather than a proportional basis and including announced but not finalized M&A activities. | |||||||
| Source: Raiffeisen Research (RBI CEE Banking Sector Report), 2020 onwards PCM Research. | |||||||