M&A activity has, however, remained subdued in recent years, in particular cross-border M&As. In the ECB’s latest Financial Integration Report, we document that M&A activity in the euro area banking sector has been on a declining trend since 2000, and in particular in the aftermath of the crisis.
But in the end, all forms of savings have to be converted into money, if savings are ever to be converted into  2  Several contributions to the related literature invoke the costs of verifying the characteristics and attributes of a good received in exchange (costs of inspection, measuring, property rights) as the prime reason for the emergence of a dominant medium of exchange.