Bank Diversification and Financial Conglomerates in Europe

The chapter is organized as follows. The section “The Business Structure of Financial Conglomerates” provides an overarching discussion on the corporate structure of financial conglomerates along with some data on these institutions. The section “The Drivers of Financial Conglomerates” presents the driving forces behind the evolution of these heterogeneous institutions. The section “Financial Conglomerates and Theoretical Arguments” reviews the theoretical arguments behind the creation of financial conglomerates. The section “Empirical Work on Financial Conglomerates” complements the review by presenting the empirical findings on the effects of bank diversification on financial intermediaries. The section “The European Conglomerates Landscape” reviews the evolution of bank diversification into non-banking activities, by offering key statistics on European banks and financial conglomerates and a summary of key regulatory developments. “Concluding Remarks” brings the chapter to a close and presents some aspects of modern financial markets that require further thought