Cross border holdings
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Plumbers and Visionaries: The role of the European Central Bank
19.12.2007
In the second extract of his book Plumbers and Visionaries Peter Norman tells the story of how the European Central Bank got involved in the securities settlement business.
Plumbers and Visionaries
17.12.2007Eurointelligence is proud to present a two-part extract from Peter Norman's latest book, Plumbers and Visionaries, recently published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Plumbers and Visionaries - Securities Settlement and Europe's Financial Market (ISBN 978-0-470-72425-5) is the story of the European clearing and settlement industry - the plumbing of our financial system - and as such a critical part of the narrative of European financial integration. The first part explains how this industry works. The second part, to be published later this week, tells the story of the Target2Securities controversy.
The EU's struggle to achieve an integrated retail financial services market
03.12.2007
By: Graham Bishop
The European Commission's latest initiatives to modernise Europe's single market include further integration of retail financial services markets. If the example of the Consumer Credit Directive is any thing to go by, this will continue to be a struggle.
Eurointelligence Briefing Notes
The MiFID Directive - This is Briefingnote is presented by EurActiv
The MiFID, a cornerstone of the Financial Services Action Plan, was proposed in November 2002 to update the existing Investment Services Directive (ISD) of 1993. It was designed to cope with, and to further enable, the increased level of cross-border investment transactions, which had shown an annual increase of 20-25% in the years from 1996.
Private versus Public Banks: The academic evidence
In France, about two thirds of the banking system is owned by the public sector. In Germany, that proportion is even higher – about 75%. In Spain, the public sector owns no banks outright, but the public sector is still a dominant player among the savings banks. In Italy, the situation is interesting. In 1990, Italy had a similar banking structure to Germany, with about 70% of the banking sector stated-own. That proportion went down to 9% by 2005.
The creation of a single European financial market is often viewed as one precondition for the success of monetary union in the long-run. The EU’s Financial Services Action Plan is one part of the process towards a harmonized financial sector in the EU. But for the euro area specifically, the ambitions the ambitions should go beyond...
A short collection of references to the FSAP
The Financial Services Action Plan is an ambitious blueprint by the European Union to create a single market for financial services by 2010. A well integrated financial services market is regarded not only as a benefit to trade integration inside the EU, but it is also regarded as particularly important for the smooth functioning of the euro area. At present, financial and banking services within the EU are poorly integrated, relative to the trade in manufactured goods.
In the following list we present a number of important documents related to the FSAP:
- The original report of the Lamfalussy Group
- The EU Commission's White Paper for Financial Services Policy 2005-2010, plus Annexes
- The EU Commission's 2005 Evaluation of the FSAP
- A practical guide to the FSAP by the UK...