How Many Banks are Registered in the EU in 2023

The European Union’s banking system is very stable, as it has been for each passing year. This is despite the fact that the total number of financial institutions in the EU has been on the decline over the last 13 years. According to the figures from 2023, as provided by the European Central Bank, the statistical publication provides users with specific information on the structure of, the performance, lending and deposit trends in European banking, and also a country overview.

Although European banks have shown resilience and resistance, structural transformation of the sector continued in 2021 in order to improve efficiency and profitability. The total number of banks in the European Union in 2021 was 5,263.

Rationalization is indeed linked to the digitalization of banking services and to transformation programs run by European banks in response to changes in customer behaviour and as a means of enhancing process efficiency. As for bank branches, their number also did not escape the heat of this restructuring: it fell to about 139,000, a 5.5 percent decrease from the previous year. Meanwhile, in Europe, the number of active banks was 5,981 in 2019, with 163,270 branches. An average of 10,000 bank branches is closed annually, which totally reflects the trend of banking services to become online.

In July 2022, Statista reported there were 5,171 banks in the European Union for 27 member countries. Further, approximately 2.15 million people were employed by credit institutions across Europe, and some employees of banks themselves dealt with more than 200 customers. Whereas Germany had almost 1,427 more banks in 2022 compared to any other European country, this was a downward trend during the years. Total assets in the German banking industry exceed €9,200 billion.

Europe’s largest banks in 2023

Following is the ranking of the top 7 largest banks in Europe based on total assets (billion euros) at the beginning of 2023:

• HSBC Holdings PLC, UK – 2597 billion euros BNP Paribas SA, France – 2554 billion euros
• Crédit Agricole Group, France – 2 352 billion euros
• Barclays PLC, UK – 1 648 billion euros
• Banco Santander SA, Spain – 1 596 billion euros
• Groupe BPCE, France – 1516 billion euros
• Société Générale SA, France – 1 464 billion euros Deutsche Bank AG, Germany – 1 324 billion euros
• Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Italy – 1 069 billion euros Lloyds Banking Group PLC, UK – 1 055 billion euros

European System of Central Banks

The European System of Central Banks includes the European Central Bank and the national central banks of all 27 EU members.

By itself, the Eurosystem represents the major banking bodies of the 20 EU members whose currency is the euro.

The core of the ESCB and Eurosystem is the European Central Bank (ECB). It was established on 1 June 1998. The ECB is independent in the exercise of its powers and is a legal person under public international law. Its headquarters are in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

The ECB has three decision-making bodies that also manage the ESCB and the Eurosystem:

• The Governing Council is the main decision-making body of the ECB. It formulates monetary policy in the euro area and adopts the necessary guidelines to ensure that objectives are met.
• The Executive Council is an operational body of the ECB and the Eurosystem implementing the monetary policy of the eurozone, in accordance with the decisions of the Governing Council, and running current operations of the European Central Bank. It is comprised of the President, the Vice-President and four other members.
• General Council: It was the third decision-making unit of the ECB. This is, however a transitional body, which shall last only until the adaptation of Euro by all EU member states.

There is also a Supervisory Board established after the ECB was given specific responsibilities for the supervision of credit organizations under the Single Supervisory Mechanism (ESM) in order to contribute to the reliability and stability of the banking system.

If one intends to open an account with any bank in one of the European countries, then highly-qualified consultants of Regulated United Europe will be in a position to assist. During more than eight years, we have developed a wide network of trusts in the European banking industry that will simplify the processing of your application for opening an account with the selected bank.