The Banker’s 2019 Top 250 EU Banks ranking provides a snapshot of a sector struggling to find growth in a sluggish operating environment. Over the 2018 review period, the gross domestic product of the EU’s 28 economies expanded by just 1.9%, down from the 2.4% achieved in the previous year, according to data from Eurostat.
In particular, growing global trade tensions and uncertainties over Brexit, among other issues, weighed heavily on the EU’s economic performance in the second half of 2018. These cooler economic conditions hit the performance of banks across the region, contributing to marginal declines across most metrics in the ranking.
