This movement is mainly the result of mergers resulting from restructuring within the banking groups, cross-border as well as cross sectoral, at the international level. The tendency has abated for now, but is likely to revive once the economy recovers. This restructuring process can lead among others to the concentration of specific activities within banking groups into one single handling unit.
IT-infrastructure, back-office, trading and accounting are some prime examples. While acknowledging the possible economic benefits of this concentration, care should be taken that outsourcing does not create gaps, neither in risk management nor in supervision. From a macro-prudential perspective, the banks have been able, partly due however to the aforementioned factors in their profit and loss accounts, to cope with the harsh external environment.