Looking at simple capacity indicators like the number of banks or branches per inhabitant, it can be expected that consolidation will continue in the French, German, and Italian banking sectors in particular.
It is questionable, though, whether this process will follow the same pattern as, for example, in the Netherlands or Sweden, because the share of publicly owned banks has always been much larger in France, Germany and Italy. It is also unlikely that the expected consolidation process will ultimately lead to concentrated banking sectors such as that in the Netherlands.