M&A in European financial services hits six-year low

Just €80bn-worth of deals was announced last year, compared with €178bn in 2008, and €208bn in 2007, according to PwC's European Financial Services M&A Insights report. With the exclusion of government activity, which scaled back significantly throughout 2009, the figures would be much lower at €41bn for 2009, compared with €70bn in 2008 and €45bn in 2004. By contrast, PwC has a positive outlook for deal activity in 2010, with the advisory service expecting large increases in private sector deals as banks sell off their asset management and consumer finance arms. Joint ventures wil...