A few facts will perhaps give you a feel for the profound changes occurring in the structure of the U.S. banking system. In 1980 there were about 14,400 banks in the U.S. organized into about 12,300 banking organizations. By the end of 1997, the number of banks had fallen to just under 9,100, and the number of banking organizations to not quite 7,200.
At the same time as Estonia’s EMU criteria were being assessed in Brussels and Frankfurt, European bond markets were under considerable strain. There were signs of panic in trading floors, and the financial press was predicting even the breakdown of the Monetary Union.