Eurozone member nations with suffering economies could lose all their domestic banks, said analysts at rating agency Standard and Poor’s, according to an article published in the Telegraph August 10. Larger pan-European banks could replace nation banks because Europe’s banking system is “not aligned to the single currency area,” they said.

Some banks, especially in nations like Portugal, Ireland and Greece, have become reliant on loans from the European Central Bank (ecb). These loans were meant to be a short-term fix, but now these banks cannot survive without them—meaning they are unlikely to last in the long term.

“We envisage that banks operating on a more EU-wide basis, alongside an ecb with appropriate powers, would be an important part of a sustainable euro project,” said S&P financial analyst Tony Silverman.

“This may mean peripheral countries should not necessarily expect to have their own domestic banks,” he said.

The vacuum could leave another avenue for the eurozone’s more prosperous nations to take over assets of the weaker ones.

“However it happens, Germany is prophesied to come out on top in this financial crisis,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in December 2008.

“Watch for Germany to be at the helm in a restructuring not only of EU member nations’ economies, but of the entire European Union itself!” he wrote.

Germany has plenty of bank troubles itself, especially with its Landesbanks, but this type of long-term banking problem in the peripheral nations could give Germany another chance to invade the economies of the weaker nations.