Bancassurance in Europe: past, present and future

Over the last 20 years, the convergence between banking and insurance activities has rapidly grown in Europe, evolving from simple commercial agreements to fully integrated models. The competitive viability of bancassurance strongly depends on market fluctuations and current trends in the financial services industry. This results in changing fortunes and cyclic successes, intensifying the debate between bancassurance advocates and sceptics. This book offers a comprehensive view on the evolution of the phenomenon, from its origin to challenges and opportunities in the near future, also considering some relevant changes in customers preferences and regulation. It also provides a detailed, systematic review of the existing theoretical and empirical literature on financial conglomeration,paying special attention to banks entering the insurance business. Finally, the main findings from an empirical analysis of the potential efficiency gains of bancassurance are discussed, adopting both banking and insurance perspectives