On January 1, 2014, there were 6,790 monetary financial institutions resident in the eurozone, compared with 7,059 a year earlier. The decrease was particularly pronounced in Cyprus (-26 per cent), Greece (-17 per cent), Luxembourg (-16 per cent), Spain (-9 per cent), Malta (-9 per cent) and France (-7 per cent).

In absolute terms, Luxembourg (-70), France (-76), Spain and Cyprus (-36) were the main contributors to the net decrease of 269 units in the euro area.

Despite the enlargement of the eurozone with the accession of Greece (2001), Slovenia (2007), Cyprus and Malta (both 2008), Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011) and Latvia (2013), the number of monetary financial institutions (MFIs) in the euro area decreased by 31 per cent – or 3,066 institutions – since January 1999.

On January 1, 2014, there were 8,746 MFIs resident in the EU as a whole, a net decrease of 330 units (3.6 per cent) since a year earlier. In 1999, there were 10,909 MFIs in the EU, which means there has been a net decrease of 2,163 units (-20 per cent), despite the (net) addition of 1,608 MFIs in 2004, when 10 new member states acceded, a further 72 MFIs in 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU, and the addition of 57 Croatian MFIs in July 2013.