LONDON (Reuters) – Spain’s Santander ( BME: ) plans to make the United States the launch pad for a revamped version of its consumer-services platform that will be rolled out globally.
Ana Botin, the president of the largest bank in the euro area by market value, told Reuters about this.
Meanwhile, Bbva’s bid for Sabadell (BME:), Nationwide’s acquisition of Virgin Money in Britain and some comments from regulators and parliamentarians have reignited expectations of greater consolidation in Europe’s fragmented banking sector.
In this regard, Bottin said that he expects a greater number of actions, more at the national level than at the cross-border level.
“I think there will be more mergers and acquisitions. It will happen in Germany, it will happen in the UK, it will happen in Italy,” Bottin said.
“But I don’t see many cross-border deals because it’s much harder to justify the investment,” he added; Eurozone banks cannot currently take deposits in one country and lend in another.
At the European level, cross-border banking operations are rare, hampered by various regulations and labor laws, the absence of a eurozone-wide deposit insurance system, and political resistance.
(Translated by Chiara Scarciglia; Editing by Claudia Christopheri)
