Market concentration ratio of banks in Belgium 1997-2021
The Belgian banking sector has two important characteristics. First, banking is deemed an important part of Belgian culture with a relatively high number of bank offices in the country. In 2020, for example, the total number of offices of banks established in Belgium reached 2,886 in the Flanders region. This is due to the fact that many banking offices in Belgium are managed by entrepreneurs who are not directly on the payroll of the bank itself. Consequently, the decrease of bank branches, which characterizes the financial sector in most European countries, happens at a slower rate..