Maria Luis Albuquerque told Bloomberg Europe's lenders need to think beyond borders to tackle problems rooted in being too small. Pointing to the bloc's banking union project, which has been around for years yet remains unfinished, she said big cross-border deals "should have happened a long time ago - we are in a banking union," adding, "The strange thing is that they haven't happened." In her view, "being bigger, operating cross border, ultimately will benefit the clients," and the goal is tied to banks' outsized role in the economy: "This is not about the banks for the sake of banks, it's because we acknowledge the very significant role they play in the European economy."
Albuquerque stressed it isn't the European Commission's role to dictate how large banks should be, but it does matter that "we have a regulatory framework which is not standing in the way of good business cases to gain scale." She welcomed the Commission's overhaul of merger guidelines, which expand room to build "European Champions" and encourage innovation in tie-ups, saying, "That changed approach is recognizing that the competitive landscape has evolved dramatically and we should look at it in a different way."
Her comments come after months of debate in Germany and Italy involving government figures and banking leaders about UniCredit SpA's bid to acquire Commerzbank AG, a transaction widely seen as a pivotal test for EU-wide consolidation. Other lenders have already shown cross-border combinations can work, including Austria's Erste Group Bank AG and Spain's Banco Santander SA, which agreed a transaction in Poland. Earlier Monday, the chief executive of Euronext said to the Financial Times that he would consider a merger with Deutsche Boerse, and shares of both firms rose.
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EU competition reviews hinge on how regulators define the "relevant market" for a deal, and that scope often decides whether it gets blocked or greenlit. Albuquerque argued the frame should be continental for finance: "I would argue that for the financial sector, the relevant market is Europe, because our competitors are big jurisdictions outside Europe." She also backed scaling up the bloc's market plumbing, saying, "Some businesses can be small and beautiful," but "Capital markets are not among those. This is a network industry. We need this scale."
The debate is really about where Europe's banks and market infrastructure operate and compete. If the rules shift toward scale, expect more headlines about who's buying whom and which markets those firms target. Watch for how competition policy is applied in your country and any changes it brings to the local banking scene.
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