In Europe, it is BIS Review 99/1998  -5-  worth mentioning the case of the Netherlands, where, in establishing a Competition Authority at the beginning of this year, the law provisionally assigned the protection of competition in the banking and insurance industries to the respective supervisory authorities.
Other antitrust authorities are also beginning to recognize the specificity of the banking sector and, as in Canada, have issued special instructions for the evaluation of bank mergers. The growth in competition has continued in the decade that is drawing to a close.