Why Bank-Level European Assets and Deposits Are Hard to Compare
Summary
The document addresses whether a public line-by-line list of European commercial banks with assets or deposits is available. It explains that central bank and European-level statistics can provide aggregates, while detailed figures for individual smaller banks may not be public. Public disclosures are more likely for large systemically important institutions, in part because they are subject to stress testing and related reporting.
It cautions that reported figures may describe different scopes: a bank’s global group, its regulated entity, or its European or euro-area commercial banking business. These measures can include different geographies and financial activities, so apparently similar figures may not reconcile. The answer suggests using published European Banking Authority material for some institution-level statistics, while noting that this does not establish a complete list covering the long tail of smaller banks. The document offers context on data availability and comparability rather than a compiled dataset or a standardized procedure for ranking banks.
Key ideas
- Public sources may provide aggregate European banking data without publishing figures for every individual bank.
- Large systemically important banks are more likely to have public disclosures tied to stress testing and supervision.
- Assets and deposits can refer to global groups, regulated entities, or regional banking operations.
- Differences in institutional and geographic scope make figures from different sources difficult to reconcile.
- European Banking Authority publications offer some institution-level statistics but may not cover all smaller banks.
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Full text
# List of European banks by assets and/or deposits # List of European banks by assets and/or deposits Does anyone know where I can find a list of European commercial banks that includes assets and/or deposits? I found this link on ECB's website: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/financial_corporations/list_of_financial_institutions/html/elegass.en.html It lists the banks that I need, however only reference information such as name, address and country. ## Answer by demully (score 1, accepted) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/47043 The ECB can get you Eurosystem-wide aggregates, but remember that these are just reported by the ECB by the national central banks, who actually regulate the banks. The rules and reporting standards are Europe-wide; but this is nationally operated. And the precise figures for every individual bank are commercially-sensitive data. I'm not sure they are a matter of public record for a small privately-owned institution; even if the national regulators have the right to know. You can probably find this out for the so-called SIFI and G-SIFI banks (ie the too big to fail crowd), if only because they are frequently stress-tested and the results of those exercises are a matter of public record (justified on grounds of market and public confidence in the central banks' financial stability remit). That's all well and good for the ~20 biggest banks; but omits the long-tail of the 1000s of smaller banks. But then you have to be careful about exactly what you're looking at. The likes of BNP or DBK are regulated globally by their national CB, including on assets/deposits outside the Eurosystem. Likewise most figures from journalism, sellside research etc. will capture a group-wide balance sheet (that includes a lot of financial services but not commercial banking operations). But the ECB figures will only reflect the Eurozone component of their European commercial banking divisions. So you're looking at multiple potential answers to different question that won't reconcile with each other. Short answer - it doesn't exist, to my knowledge, line-by-line... however, the EZ aggregates offer a fair reflection on the pace of deleveraging, capital raising etc. ## Answer by Dimitri Vulis (score 0) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/47052 Lots of stats is published by the European Banking Authority, (EBA) for example https://eba.europa.eu/-/the-eba-updates-data-used-for-the-identification-of-global-systemically-important-institutions-g-sii-2 .
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