1st Edition

A Century of Banking Consolidation in Europe The History and Archives of Mergers and Acquisitions

By Manfred Pohl, Teresa Tortella Copyright 2001
    344 Pages
    by Routledge

    344 Pages
    by Routledge

    From the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century the European banking sector experienced countless mergers and acquisitions. The outcome of this century of consolidation is strikingly similar across the continent, with the banking sector of each country now dominated by a handful of giant banking corporations. Consolidation and concentration trends in banking was the theme of the Academic Archive Colloquium of the European Association for Banking History held in Madrid in June 1997. This volume is comprised of the 18 papers and responses presented at the Colloquium by a truly international group of delegates. Some of the themes explored in the book include: the significance of mergers for bank archives; the regulation of mergers and their impact on banking legislation; reactions to consolidation from within and without the banking industry; case studies of particular mergers and their impact on the wider banking community. Youssef Cassis's introductory chapter provides a general survey of trends in the consolidation process and suggests that the advent of the Euro may herald a new era in the history of European banking consolidation.

    Contents: History and archives of consolidation in European banking: general trends and some case studies: Introduction: A century of consolidation in European banking - general trends, Youssef Cassis; Bank mergers and consolidation in Spanish history, Gabriel Tortella; Spanish banking archives and the legacy of mergers and acquisitions, Teresa Tortella; Marriage lines: the archive dimensions of bank mergers, Edwin Green; Comments, Eric Bussière; Legal aspects of bank mergers: Supervision and regulation of bank mergers: a historical survey, Ginette Kurgan-van Hentenryk; The banking crisis and its implications for Swiss banking legislation in the 1930s, Patrick Halbeisen; The application of European Community Regulations to consolidations of credit and other financial companies, Joaquin Lopez Madruga; Social and financial aspects of consolidation: ’Banks and Yanks’: towards a history of the restructuring of the London securities industry in the 1980s, David Kynaston; Bank mergers and their social consequences, 1920-50: the case of the Clydesdale Bank, Charles W. Munn; Banking mergers in 20th-century Scotland, Alan Cameron; Comments, Ton de Graaf; Concentration versus Deconcentration in continental banking: Responses to banking concentration in Germany 1900-33, Gerald D. Feldman; The demand for banking deconcentration in France, 1900-97: a recurrent endeavour to alleviate big banks’ hegemony, Hubert Bonin; Comments, Maurice Hamon; Mergers and European banking in Latin America: Overseas banking in Latin America: personal reflections on the 1950s and 1960s, Eric Whittle; European banks in Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the cases of Brazil and Mexico, a story of diversity, Carlos Marichal and Gail D. Triner; Comments, Geoffrey Jones; Concluding remarks, Manfred Pohl, Index.

    Biography

    Manfred Pohl, Teresa Tortella