Introduction

Abstract

Since the 1990s the European banking industry has been experiencing structural and legal changes concerning factors such as deregulation, liberalization, extraordinary upgrading in information technology (IT) and feedback from individual country economies as a reflection of the introduction of the euro (EUR) and the European Union’s (EU) enlargement process. In particular, changes and developments in the deregulation process have brought about a significant increase in competition, putting pressure on banks to become increasingly concerned with analysing and controlling their costs and revenues and, in return, maintaining high performance levels.