ECB publishes structural financial indicators for 2010

Today the European Central Bank (ECB) is publishing a dataset of structural financial indicators for the banking sector in the European Union (EU). The data cover the years 2006-10. They comprise statistics on the number of local units (branches) and employees of EU credit institutions, data on the degree of concentration of the banking sector in each of the EU Member States, and data on the share of foreign-controlled institutions in the different national banking markets of the EU.

The structural indicators show that, in most of the EU Member States, the number of credit institution units has continued the downward trend observed in previous years. The number of credit institution employees has also declined. In addition, the data show that the degree of concentration and the share of foreign-controlled institutions vary significantly across national banking markets.

The structural financial indicators are published by the ECB on an annual basis. They were previously reported and analysed in the report on EU banking structures prepared by the Banking Supervision Committee of the European System of Central Banks. The indicators are now published on their own, as the report was discontinued following the creation of the European System of Financial Supervisors at the beginning of the year.