Bachelor Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,7 (gesamt), European Business School - International University Schloß Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, language: English, abstract: As the global economic environment changes the banking sector, banks are positioning themselves in order to compete against one another. Although some banks focus on a particular market niche, the most salient feature of competitive posturing has been a trend toward the consolidation and rapid development of large big banks. The banking sector has experienced rapid consolidation globally, which, to some extent, reflects the general mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the global economy. Mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector appear in the headlines frequently. A recent example is ABN AMRO Holding N.V. (ABN AMRO). This banking group always assumed that it would be on the attacking end of a takeover bid, rather than the receiving end. However, on 23 April 2007 ABN AMRO received a EUR 65.7 billion bid from Britain's Barclays PLC (Barclays), in what could be the biggest banking merger ever. Then two days later an even bigger potential offer came in from a European consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which aimed to dismember ABN. This offer verged on hostility, setting the stage for what emerged to be the longest and most bruising take-over battle in the banking sector's history.