The construction of a single European banking market, initiated in the 90s, and the Maastricht Treaty, offered the different banking and financial actors the development of new activities in all banking activity fields.

After the Second World War, the domestic regulatory environment and the competition start. In the 70s, it was all about deregulation intensified by the European politics and globalization.

The evolution of the banking environment over the past few year raises many questions on how can the banks adapt to the new panorama. To stay efficient and competitive, banks capitalize on each ways to reach their goals. One of the main strategies is the strategic repositioning compared to competition, multiplication of entry barriers and exploiting the financial innovations.

The geographical repositioning of banks resulted in the research of new implantations on main international financial centers but also in the research of a main economic efficiency that is to say saving of costs, gain and market share. These objectives can explain the acceleration of the banking concentration phenomenon in Europe. Besides, le number of mergers and acquisitions dramatically increased over the past few years.

Mergers and acquisitions operation are the answer of two main motivations:

·         The need to cut costs

·         The will of diversification to ensure the growth of activities and revenues.

 The analysis of financial innovations finds sense with the very recent evolution of banking activities. Indeed, after the increased of competition on the stock exchange, regulatory authorities together with banks needs to adapt permanently to the new market conditions.

French and Italian banking system have common characteristics, born in the interwar. Firstly, a strong State interventionism in both countries economies and particularly in the credit sector. Mutual banks have been evolving homogeneously, and became step by step intermediary actors with a relevant impact on civilian population trough the social policies.