Number of banks in Europe 2020, by country

As of January 2020, there was a total of 5,963 banks operating in the European Union 28. Across Europe, approximately 2.67 million individuals were employed by credit institutions in 2018, with some bank employees looking after more than two hundred customers each.

Germany

In 2020, Germany had almost one thousand more banks operating than any other European country. Germany has three main types of banks, which includes Commercial, savings (or Sparkassen) and Cooperative banks. As of 2018, Co-operative banks accounted for 879 of the 1.78 thousand banks in operation. Between 2013 and 2017, almost one thousand co-operative banks closed.

Europe’s leading banks

Europe’s largest bank, HSBC Holdings was the seventh largest bank Globally in terms of market capitalization. The British headquartered bank also led Europe in terms of assets and Tier one capital. The UK giant was third in terms of revenue.