Spanish deputy governor hints at need for European banking mergers

The "excess capacity" in the banking industry "throughout Europe" is "increasingly discernible", the deputy governor of the Bank of Spain told an audience in Madrid on December 15.

Fernando Restoy hinted strongly that he believed regulators should not interfere with mergers in the European banking industry.

"Redressing this problem will likely require something more than an adjustment in banks' size or business models," he said. Banks would have to "adopt the pertinent strategic decisions at the