  Banks have to reverse the tendency of focusing on wholesale business and should ensure that agriculture, retail and SME business receive adequate attention. This is important not just for improving financial access for the smaller and marginalized groups, but also as a source of stability for banks.
Although a number of banks have reduced their operating costs over the last couple of years, overall cost efficiency has remained low in the euro area, with aggregate cost-income ratios between 63% and 65% over the last five years.29 Action taken by euro-  25  See English W., J. Skander Van den Heuvel, and E. Zakrajsek, “Interest Rate Risk and Bank Equity Valuations”, Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2012–26, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, for evidence on the reaction of net interest margins of US banks to changes in rates.