A Very Un-European Idea
The news that UniCredit is mulling the sale of its hefty stake in Germany’s Commerzbank to a buyer from outside the EU is, to me, quite the firecracker. For decades, the prevailing wisdom has been to keep these strategic assets within the club. Governments have viewed their big banks not as businesses, but as extensions of national pride and policy. The idea of a non-EU entity taking a major slice of a German banking pillar would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
This isn't just a transaction. It’s a signal. It suggests that shareholder value might finally be trumping old-fashioned European sensibilities. If this deal goes through, it could prove that the walls around national banking markets are not as high as we thought. And once one wall is breached, others tend to follow. Are we about to see the start of a proper, cross-border consolidation game?