However, in the other twelve countries studied, crossborder joint ventures and strategic alliances overall exceeded domestic deals. Our research shows that financial consolidation substantially decreased the number of banking firms during the 1990s in almost every nation studied, and measures of the national concentration of the banking industry have tended to rise.
Thank you very much for your attention. 1  See “Reinforcing economic governance in the euro area”, available on the ECB’s website (www.ecb.europa.eu). BIS Review 120/2010  3