ABSTRACT
During recent years the evolution of the European banking market has shown a remarkable trend in helping the concentration of market power, together with increased competition among intermediaries belonging to foreign countries. The latter phenomenon may be seen mainly as an outcome of the liberalisation process in the European financial services sector which had its cornerstone in the 1992 programme promoted by the second European banking directive. Such a process is likely to gain more strength in the near future as long as the creation of the single market continues. A variety of factors which influence the success, or otherwise, of concentration and merger activity will be examined below.
