And finally, there are too many banks in Europe and consolidation has not started. So, we need fewer banks in the euro area? The banking union hasn’t yet enabled consolidation within the sector. We need to see crossborder M&A activity in the banking sector, and we also need to overcome a number of obstacles to banking activity.
But the banking union has played a useful role in stabilising a sector that is now much more robust than it was in 2012, since the ECB has taken on the role of banking supervisor and has strengthened capital and liquidity requirements.