The current phase of intensive globalisation, digitisation, the expansion of fintech companies and the overall impacts of the recent crisis seem to spur further concentration in the banking sector in terms of both the number of banks in operation and the number of banking centres. This research is motivated by the fact that, in contrast to leading financial and banking centres that attract considerable research attention, small banking centres have remained under-researched, despite their large number and the important role they play in their host communities and regions. This paper deals with the recent evolutionary dynamics of 199 small European banking centres and is based on an analysis of the economic performance of individual banks aggregated at the city level where they have their headquarters. The analysed indicators cover size, profitability and the level of risk of particular banks over the 2004–2015 period. In addition, the data were analysed for three basic European macro-regions (western Europe, southern Europe and central and eastern Europe) and in terms of the ownership of the banks headquartered in particular centres (foreign versus domestic). Our investigation shows that, even though a significant decline has been observed in the number of these centres, the financial performance of banks headquartered in small financial centres differs widely, depending significantly upon the European macro-region (a decisive number of defunct banking centres was concentrated in southern Europe) and the ownership structure.

中文翻译：

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金融危机期间欧洲小型银行中心经济表现的地理、所有权和不平衡趋势

当前的密集全球化、数字化、金融科技公司的扩张以及近期危机的整体影响似乎促使银行业在运营银行数量和银行中心数量方面进一步集中。这项研究的动机是，与吸​​引大量研究注意力的领先金融和银行中心相比，小型银行中心尽管数量众多且在其所在社区和地区发挥着重要作用，但仍然没有得到充分研究。本文讨论了 199 个欧洲小型银行中心最近的演变动态，并基于对各个银行在其总部所在城市层面汇总的经济表现的分析。分析的指标涵盖规模、2004-2015 年期间特定银行的盈利能力和风险水平。此外，还分析了三个基本欧洲宏观区域（西欧、南欧以及中欧和东欧）的数据以及总部位于特定中心的银行的所有权（国外与国内）。我们的调查表明，尽管这些中心的数量显着下降，但总部位于小型金融中心的银行的财务业绩差异很大，这在很大程度上取决于欧洲宏观区域（决定性数量的已倒闭银行中心是集中在南欧）和所有权结构。分析了三个基本欧洲宏观区域（西欧、南欧以及中欧和东欧）的数据以及总部位于特定中心的银行的所有权（外国与国内）。我们的调查表明，尽管这些中心的数量显着下降，但总部位于小型金融中心的银行的财务业绩差异很大，这在很大程度上取决于欧洲宏观区域（决定性数量的已倒闭银行中心是集中在南欧）和所有权结构。分析了三个基本欧洲宏观区域（西欧、南欧以及中欧和东欧）的数据以及总部位于特定中心的银行的所有权（外国与国内）。我们的调查表明，尽管这些中心的数量显着下降，但总部位于小型金融中心的银行的财务业绩差异很大，这在很大程度上取决于欧洲宏观区域（决定性数量的已倒闭银行中心是集中在南欧）和所有权结构。