EU structural financial indicators: 2014

• Decline in number of bank branches continues in most EU countries
• Number of bank employees down by about 74,000 to around 2.8 million
• Share of assets of five largest institutions at national level varies from 32% to 94%

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a comprehensive dataset of structural financial indicators for the banking sector in the European Union (EU). It comprises statistics on the number of branches and employees of EU credit institutions, data on the degree of concentration of the banking sector in each EU Member State, and data on the share of foreign-controlled institutions in the national banking markets of the EU.

The structural financial indicators show, for instance, that in most EU Member States the number of branches of domestic credit institutions has continued to decline, from around 211,000 at the end of 2013 to some 204,000 branches at the end of 2014. The number of employees of credit institutions in the EU has also fallen, to around 2.8 million in 2014, a decrease of some 74,000 compared with the figure for 2013.

The data also indicate that the degree of concentration in the banking sector (measured by the share of assets held by the five largest banks) and the share of foreign-controlled institutions continue to vary significantly across national markets. The share of total assets of the five largest credit institutions, at national level, ranged from 32% to 94% at the end of 2014.

The structural financial indicators are published by the ECB on an annual basis.

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