The deregulation of financial services in the European Union, together with the establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union, aimed at the creation of a level-playing-field in the provision of banking services across the EU. The plan was to remove entry barriers and to foster competition and...

Evidence of financial integration and convergence are considered of importance in assessing the outcome of EU deregulation policies aimed at improving the efficiency and performance of banking sectors. This paper evaluates the recent dynamics of bank cost efficiency by means of Data Envelopment...