EU: European banks are not serving customers well

Turkish Daily News Jul 18, 2006:

"EU: European banks are not serving customers well
Tuesday, July 18, 2006

BRUSSELS - The Associated Press

European banks are not serving customers well, European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Monday, as she released a first report from an antitrust probe into the sector.

EU regulators identified a host of problems showing that banking is still a fairly closed market, but Kroes said she needed the industry to help her show what must be done to knock down these walls.

Banks generally stick to their own national markets and benefit from very faithful customers who usually hold a personal current account with the same bank for around ten years on average, which may partly be because of the high cost of switching banks. "