European Financial Market Integration

Distant dream or nascent reality?

Patrice Muller

Published: September 2004


European Monetary Union and a vigorous legislative agenda have profoundly changed the environment in which the European financial services industry operates. These developments should have contributed to a deepening of financial market integration in the European Union, especially within the Eurozone. However, actual progress has been very uneven. Eurozone money markets and bonds markets have achieved full or a very high level of integration. Eurozone equity markets show increasing signs of integration, although substantial barriers to cross-border trading remain. Bank credit markets, with the exception of inter-bank lending, and insurance and funds industries, remain still largely fragmented along national lines.



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