INVESTIGATING DIVERSITY IN THE BANKING SECTOR IN EUROPE

In the decades preceding the Great Crisis of 2007-2009, banking systemsunderwent a profound transformation, progressively moving awayfrom a type of banking centred on personal relationships towards onebased on more standardised and impersonal rapport. It was thought that,through this transformation – driven by ICT progress – banks could betterexploit the opportunities offered to them by financial liberalisation. Thatchange was also favoured by the banks’ need to cut costs, thus raisingprofits to levels previously unimaginable in banking but now required byever-more demanding investors. So, from being the economy’s mostregulated and traditional sector, banking became rather fashionable. Andbeing a banker, once labelled as the safe but tedious profession of the ‘threethrees’ – the mortgage rate is 3%, the spread between lending and depositinterest rates is 3% and at 3 p.m. the banker goes to play golf (or tennis) –metamorphosed into one of the most dynamic, increasingly better paid jobsthat, alas, yielded less and less spare time. The change, designed togenerate the highest returns and based on big consulting theories,prescribed attuning the banks to financial markets and modifying the bankbusiness model.