Europe's banking blues

摘要

If in doubt, join up. That seems to be the prevailing philosophy in the marbled halls of Europe's banks. Deutsche Bank's planned takeover of its Frankfurt rival, Dresdner Bank, to form the biggest bank in Europe, is only the latest in a string of huge recent deals that have certainly made investment-banking advisers happy. In France, Banque Nationale de Paris has acquired Paribas. In Britain, Royal Bank of Scotland is taking over National Westminster Bank. In Scandinavia, MeritaNordbanken, itself a Finnish-Swedish creation, this week announced plans to buy Denmark's Unidanmark. Over the past two years there have been similar marriages of giants in Switzerland, Spain, the Benelux countries and Italy.