European finance: The pros and cons of bank consolidation

Europe remains chronically overbanked, and its banks are resolutely underperforming. Surely the answer lies in M&A? But with regulatory uncertainties still distracting boards and chief executives, the low-hanging fruit of European finance is likely to remain unpicked for now.

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Banco Sabadell’s announcement in March that it is to purchase UK bank TSB was a rare example of something that the European banking sector desperately wants to see: large-scale, cross-border M&A. 

The £1.7 billion acquisition of TSB, which was previously spun out of Lloyds Banking Group, has plenty of critics and faces big hurdles, not least from the cost of migrating TSB onto Sabadell’s IT platform. But the very fact that it is happening at all only highlights how long it is taking for Europe’s severely over-banked financial sector to see any glimmer of merger activity.

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