This paper connects different business cultures of large banks in various countries of the EMU with monetary policy issue of the ECB. First, the banks' competitive potential as well as their strategic behaviour is outlined. Furthermore, a cluster analysis exhibits some banking groups according to the liability-orientation of the largest EMU-banks, and a factor analysis gives some additional information about their asset-orientation; both business-orientations play an important role for the efficiency of monetary policy. Finally, the different cash requirements within the various European coun-tries might lead to totally new bank strategies, yielding to an internationali-sation of large bank-credits.

JEL Codes: E51, E52, G21, G34

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