CEPS and the International Observatory on Financial Services Cooperatives (IOFSC) at HEC Montreal have initiated an annual monitoring exercise on banking business models in the EU. Based on their balance sheet structures, 147 European banks that account for more than 80% of the industry assets were categorised in four business models. The Monitor emphasises the ownership structures and assesses the financial and economic performance, resilience and robustness, before, during and after the financial and economic crises across retail diversified-, retail focused-, investment-, and wholesale oriented banks. Inter alia, this edition of the Monitor finds that banks that engage more in traditional retail banking activities with a mix of funding sources fared well as compared to other bank models during the different phases of the crisis.

The authors are Rym Ayadi, Senior Fellow at CEPS and Professor HEC Montreal, and Willem Pieter De Groen, Researcher at CEPS. Statistical support and other contributions were provided by Marie-Josée Lapointe, André Michelet, Harol Rey, Ibtihel Sassi and Cristina Tita, members of the research team at the International Observatory on Financial Services Cooperatives (IOFSC), HEC Montreal.