Maria Luís Albuquerque, the EU Commissioner for Financial Services, stated on September 14, 2026, that cross-border banking mergers in the European Union are long overdue. She argued that European lenders lack the scale of their American and Chinese counterparts, which operate in more unified markets.
In 2025, the total value of cross-border bank M&A in Europe reached €17 billion, marking the highest figure since the 2008 financial crisis. However, this volume was spread across only 19 transactions, indicating a slow pace of consolidation despite the existing Banking Union framework.
Albuquerque rejected industry requests to split a major regulatory reform package. She insisted that the reforms must be implemented as an integrated suite to effectively address market fragmentation. The European Commission plans to present a comprehensive banking competitiveness package in early 2027.
The upcoming reform agenda includes the completion of the Banking Union, specifically the implementation of a common deposit insurance scheme. These efforts align with a July 2026 communication from the Commission, which highlighted the necessity of growth to prevent European banks from becoming secondary global players.
