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Villeroy, who was commenting while addressing an industry event
in Paris on Wednesday, did not mention any particular banks or
deals by name, but said cross-border European banking tie-ups
could bring benefits.
"Healthy and solid cross-border consolidation deals would allow
banks to better diversify their risks across the whole of the
euro zone, and to orient their funds more efficiently towards
productive investments," he said.
Recent takeover speculation has centered on Germany's
Commerzbank <CBKG.DE>.
Germany has denied a report that it favored a merger of
Commerzbank with France's BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>, while Italy's
UniCredit <CRDI.MI> recently told Berlin it was interested in
eventually merging with Commerzbank, according to people close
to the matter.
Villeroy also highlighted in his speech that euro zone banks
were lagging their U.S. peers in the sense that the top five
U.S. banks had a 40 percent share of their market, whereas the
top five in Europe had a share of less than 20 percent.
Villeroy also welcomed this week's decision by the European
Banking Authority (EBA) to base its new post-Brexit headquarters
in Paris, as it would help Paris in its bid to establish itself
as Europe's foremost financial hub.
(Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou and Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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