Must read from Bloomberg on the state of Europe's incumbent financial institutions and the growth of fintech disruptors. Short summary, since the GFC the banks have had a rough go in Europe. "Since 2008, eight of Europe’s biggest banks have announced layoffs adding up to about 100,000 employees, paid $63b in legal penalties, and lost $420b in market value."
If you had to pick the moment when European banking reached the point of no return, which would you choose? The July day in 2012 when Bob Diamond resigned as Barclays’s chief executive officer amid the Libor rigging scandal? Or the fall morning later that year when UBS announced it was pulling out of fixed income and firing 10,000 employees? How about Sept. 12, 2010, when Basel III’s raft of costly capital requirements started upending the economics of global finance?