An early form of European champions? Banking clubs between European integration and global banking (1960s–1990s)

Drach, A. (2022) An early form of European champions? Banking clubs between European integration and global banking (1960s–1990s). Business History, (doi: 10.1080/00076791.2021.2025220) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s, most large European commercial banks created European banking clubs, which were hybrid cooperative organisations meant to respond to American competition and to the progress of European integration. Based on the archives of several commercial banks from France and the UK, this article examines how the three main European clubs (EBIC, Europartners, and ABECOR) emerged and developed in the 1960s and 1970s, and continued to exist despite increasing challenges in the 1980s. The article argues that banking clubs were an early attempt at creating truly ‘European’ banks, or European champions, even though their experience was abandoned. They also participated in European integration in a different way than the one the European Commission promoted. These clubs were an important institutional response of European banks to both globalisation and European integration.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 716849).
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Drach, Dr Alexis
• Authors: Drach, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Business History
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0007-6791
• ISSN (Online): 1743-7938
• Published Online: 07 February 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Author
• First Published: First published in Business History 2022
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License