Intereconomics: EU Competitiveness and 19th Century U.S. Banking Policy

Europe is in a competitiveness crisis. Reports by former Italian Prime Ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta have pointed out just how dire the economic situation is in Europe – start-ups that cannot scale, a fragmented financial sector and unofficial internal barriers across the EU Single Market reaching up to 40%. EU leaders worry that continuing like this will mean becoming irrelevant in the global arena.

The problem is not that Europe does not have its own banks; the EU and the U.S. have a similar number of banks, 4886 and 4983, respectively. The problem is that European banks are competing in small national markets, limited by national competition law. The question is not why, it is how we can successfully integrate larger and smaller banks at the European level.

You can read more here: https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2025/number/6/article/eu-competitiveness-and-19th-century-u-s-banking-policy.html