Development of the euro area monetary financial institutions sector

On 1 January 2008 the total number of monetary financial institutions (MFIs) ^[1] in the euro area stood at 7,887, which is an increase of 241units (3.1%) in comparison with the number recorded one year ago. This increase was due entirely to the enlargement of the euro area through the accession of Cyprus and Malta, in which 244 MFIs are resident. More than 80% of the euro area MFIs are credit institutions and most of the remainder are money market funds. Since 1 January 1999 the number of MFIs in the euro area has decreased by 20%, despite the enlargement as a result of Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta joining the euro area. Germany and France account for 44% of all euro area MFIs.

On 1 January 2008 two countries accounted for 44% (3,483) of all MFIs in the euro area: Germany (26.6%) and France (17.6%). Italy and Austria each accounted for about 10% of the euro area total. Over the last nine years (1999-2008), the following developments in the national MFI sectors of euro area countries have been particularly noteworthy: a considerable increase of 236 units (246%) in Ireland and large decreases in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany (by 48%, 41% and 36% respectively). Since joining the EU on 1 May 2004, the MFI sectors in Malta and Slovenia have increased significantly, namely by 65% and 11% respectively. By contrast, the number of MFIs in Cyprus has decreased by 47% during the same period. Please see Table 1 below.

Among the non-euro area countries, Poland has by far the largest number of MFIs (722), representing 7% of the MFI sector in the EU. Since 1999 there have been substantial increases in the MFI sectors of Slovakia (36%), Latvia (33%), Sweden (31%) and Romania (26%), while the size of these sectors in the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic has shrunk by 24% and 15%, respectively.

The number of MFIs has been derived from the ECB’s “List of monetary financial institutions” which is updated daily on the ECB’s website and is compiled according to stringent requirements to ensure its completeness, accuracy and homogeneity across countries. Its objectives are twofold, namely (i) to serve as the reference reporting population for the compilation of comprehensive and consistent monetary statistics for the euro area and (ii) to serve as a register and a reliable sampling frame for other data collections and for statistical and economic analyses.

The “List of monetary financial institutions” and the “List of monetary financial institutions and institutions subject to minimum reserves” can be downloaded from the “Statistics” section of the ECB’s website, under “Money, banking and financial markets”/“List of Monetary Financial Institutions”/”MFI data access”