Stratégies comparées des banques mutualistes en Europe (Allemagne, France, Italie, Pays-Bas, Royaume-Uni)

The creation of a single market for banking and financial services on 1 January 1993, followed by the creation of the euro zone on 1 January 1999, has been a tremendous incentive to homogenise banking structures. This movement has taken on particular importance because it follows a wave of financial liberalisation in Europe and the rest of the world, where all forms of administrative control (credit controls, exchange controls, etc.) or legal compartmentalisation (between states, between branches of the financial industry, etc.) have been or are being abolished to give free rein to a variety of private initiatives (financial innovations, concentrations, etc.). It has also taken on a particular importance because it is one of the facets of financial globalisation which, following the example of the foreign exchange market after the dismantling of the Bretton Woods framework, promotes the omnipresence of ubiquitous, liquid and interconnected financial markets, an omnipresence which is concretised by new relations with the donors as summarised in the debates on 'corporate governance'. In such a context, it is more than ever permissible to speak of a banking Europe in the making and to consider, in an overall view, the strategies of banking companies and the upheavals of the banking systems within the European Union. However, in this contribution, where we wish to take partial stock of current European banking structures, we would like to focus on what constitutes both an illustration of the forces pushing for the homogenisation of these banking structures and a resistance to these same forces. From this perspective, the mutual or public banking sector (including savings banks), which by virtue of its status escapes the logic of shareholder value creation and limits the possibilities of takeovers, is of particular interest. At a time when banking concentration is increasing and the trend is towards total liberalisation, this sector seems unsuitable and at odds with the current. However, the brilliant results obtained in France with the process of buying up credit institutions, the significant market share held in Germany (30% of turnover) and the resistance to the demutualisation movement in Great Britain are all characteristics that reveal the strengths and potential of this sector. Thus, our description of the European banking industries, in fact that of the five countries mentioned, aims to describe the diversity of the paths followed and, why not, to outline the diversity of possible responses. This last point is more questioning and is part of a reflection on the convergence of economies which underlines the dependence of economies on their history and their institutions.