The pace of mergers and acquisitions between top financial players is set to increase, while smaller financial institutions are set to compete with these large institutions by forming new financial 'supermarkets'.

According to a new study conducted by the Tower Group, a US consultancy, and Computer Sciences Corporation, a US IT and government consultancy, analysts are now paying particular attention to those companies that can leverage the power of the internet to form their own independent financial supermarkets - a one-stop retail source on the web for banking, brokerage and insurance products.