German Banking Consolidation Accelerated in 2022
The number of German banks decreased by 4.2% or 60 institutions YoY to a total of 1.386 in 2022. This is the largest decline in 5 years (since 2017). Apparently, German banking consolidation took a breather during the first Corona year in 2020, but has accelerated since then.
Monthly data seems to indicate that the pace of consolidation might have slowed a little towards the end of 2022. It is, however, still too early to call this a cyclical turing point. Medium to long term there is little doubt that consolidation will continue or even accelerate.
