In  3  BIS Review 68/1999  the euro area, growth in recent years has been much more rapid in assets under the management of mutual funds and other institutional investors than in the assets of banks. This reflects a tendency towards decreasing the relative weight of bank deposits compared with securities in financial wealth.
The euro area banking industry has reacted to this development already by diversifying into the asset management area. Banking groups have been able to “internalise” a significant part of the securitisation tendency as they control a large majority of the mutual funds.