Danske Bank’s CEO Peter Straarup is forecasting that the number of banks in Denmark will be halved and that it is not unrealistic to expect their number to fall from 130 to 80 in the near future as a result of the current crisis.

“I think that the Local Financial Institution’s members will be angry with me now, but it would be good (Ed: to cut the number of banks down to 80) and it would be even better if we could come further down,” Straarup tells TV2 News adding that 80 may still be too many.

“If we end up with 60 banks, it would be good. If we compare ourselves to Sweden, we shouldn’t have more than 20 banks. And if we compare ourselves generally with the situation abroad, we have too many banks in Denmark,” he says.

But Straarup doesn’t see his own bank acquiring some of the smaller Danish banks adding that Danske Bank’s size means that it would not be possible to carry out further acquisitions.