In the French newspaper Les Echos, Ivo Arnold, Professor of Monetary Economics at Erasmus School of Economics, reacts to the news that ING is leaving the French market.
Interest rates
ING, the largest bank in the Benelux countries, recently announced that it will no longer be operating in France. The banking group, which is active in several European countries, will have disappeared from the French scene by the end of 2022. Despite repeated attempts, ING's market share proved too small to run a lucrative business. According to Arnold, we are unlikely to see a pan-European bank: 'Integrating all these different cultures and practices into the operations of an international bank is proving extremely complicated'. There is also another problem: interest rates are too low to be attractive to consumers. Since it is very easy to switch banks in the current era, these interest rates have had a big negative effect on demand.
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You can download the article (in French) from Les Echos, 6 April 2022, above.