MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN THE BANKING SECTOR AND THE COMPETITIVE STRUCTURE OF THE BANKING SERVICES MARKET IN POLAND SINCE 2004

Competition in the banking market remains of constant interest to researchers, because of the role that the banking sector plays in the country's financial system. The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of market concentration of banking services in Poland, five years after accession to the European Union. In the empirical part of the article the value of the structural measures of concentration in relation to assets and net income of commercial banks was estimated, as the concentration ratio CRn, for n equal to 5, 10 and 15, the Gini coefficient and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. In terms of assets concentration, obtained results indicate a stable share of the five largest commercial banks in the banking services market in Poland, with a decreasing degree of concentration in general, due to the rapid growth of bank assets of small and medium enterprises. However, the income distribution in the banking sector is uneven. All indicators calculated by reference to net profits point to a high level of concentration of the banking services market.