Financial integration
Koskenkylä, Heikki (01.12.2004)
Numero
108Julkaisija
Suomen PankkiBank of Finland
2004
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:bof-201408071773Tiivistelmä
Financial integration is key to the European Union?s growth and competitive strategies ? part of the Lisbon Strategy ? which aims at raising the EU to be the most competitive economic area in the world.A European Commission report states that the growth and employment effects of broadening and deepening integration will be considerable.The effects will be seen in household and companies? access to both financing and other financial services at rates below those of today and from a broader and more reliable array of services. Financial integration has advanced varyingly, hastened by market forces, technological development and the euro.Authorities play a crucial role in both the promotion of integration and stability, the maintenance of confidence in financial market activities, improved consumer protection, prevention of criminal misuse of the financial system and promotion of competitiveness. Integration is most advanced in the European debt markets and in the wholesale market for short-term debt instruments.Development within the retail banking sector has been slower.Households and small and medium-sized companies are still modest users of crossborder financial services.Infrastructures already in place in financial markets, concerning large-value payments, operate effectively and reliably at the cross-border level.Systems handling small-value payments still must be improved in order to provide as rapid and reasonably-priced transfer of payments across international borders as now happens with domestic transfers. Cross-border securities clearing and settlement continues to be inefficient and expensive.However many EU-level fora are looking to solve the perceived shortcomings in access to cross-border financial services and trade. The European Commission has actively furthered financial market integration, as too the ECB and the ESCB, both of which have made efforts to influence the development of an internal market within the financial markets, leading to close cooperation between the European Commission, European Council and ESCB. Keywords: financial markets, integration, clearing and settlement systems, structural change, regulation and supervision, stability