Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. LITERATURE REVIEW -- A. Competition and Concentration -- B. Concentration and Stability -- C. Competition and Stability -- D. Regulation, Supervision and Stability -- III. METHODOLOGY -- A. Duration Analysis -- B. Logistic Probability Analysis -- C. Panzar and Rosse (1987) H-Statistic -- IV. DATA AND SUMMARY STATISTICS -- V. REGRESSION RESULTS -- A. Main Results -- B. Robustness Tests -- C. Competitiveness, Regulation and Systemic Crises -- VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS -- DEFINITIONS OF VARIABLES AND DATA SOURCES -- REFERENCES.