Mergers and the protection of competition  BIS Review 99/1998  -2-  A high degree of concentration and a small number of large banks that enjoy growing economies of scale represent a situation that needs to be watched carefully. It is necessary to ensure that mergers bring benefits for customers and not an increase in market power.
These relations also reflect the importance of economic and financial links between the euro area and the Western Balkans. The region is undergoing a remarkable economic and institutional transformation, benefiting from on-going integration into pan-European production chains and the resulting trade links, as well as from sizeable capital inflows originating from Europe.