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Article: Outside influence.
- Article from:
- The Banker
- Article date:
- May 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 FT Business. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Nick Kochan
There is a cruel irony about Luxembourg banking. However well it does, in the hardest of economic conditions, it is not large enough to create a private sector bank capable of competing with the largest European banks. The country has no less than 154 banks, but the great majority are subsidiaries of other European banks. The country's financial institutions are highly vulnerable to the machinations that take place in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
The small may be virtuous, even rich, but they will never be powerful. That is the lesson of recent events in Paris, where European giant BNP Paribas is on the verge of snapping ...