Nordea sees wave of mergers ready to roll across financial sector

The financial industry is headed for a new wave of mergers and acquisitions driven by sector consolidation in West Europe. "There will be consolidation here as well," said Nordea president in Poland Thomas Neckmar. Alarich Fenyves, head of financial services at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, added that the country has huge development potential. Fewer than one in four of the public has a bank account, compared with 90% in West Europe. Eight medium sized Polish banks have market shares of around 5% each, while the two biggest banks have market shares of just below 20% each, with the rest of the market divided between around 70 commercial and more than 500 cooperative banks. "Many of the local champions will be dwarfed by EU competitors," Fenyves said. (Reuters) M.M.