Europe's Bankers Aren't Ready for Marriage
For all the good intentions about a euro zone banking union, the zeitgeist has changed on cross-border mergers. Just look at Italy’s UniCredit.
Against the zeitgeist.
Photographer: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFPAfter a year-long pause, the euro zone seems ready to resume talks over the completion of a “banking union”. The project — which includes creating a single deposit insurance scheme for all the bloc’s lenders — would go a long way toward boosting the resilience of Europe’s financial system.
For all the good intentions, however, the zeitgeist in the monetary union has changed. The pandemic has spurred a new wave of economic nationalism, and banks are part of it. Take the board coup at UniCredit SpA, Italy’s second largest lender. It shows how banks are increasingly looking inward rather than embracing the European project.