Integrating Europe's Retail Banking Market

Download or read book Integrating Europe's Retail Banking Market written by Stefanie Kleimeier and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report offers a comprehensive survey of recent empirical research on the state and development of retail banking integration in Europe. The authors, Stefanie Kleimeier and Harald Sander, document a broad consensus that retail banking integration is still limited, although it seems to have recently gained momentum. Kleimeier and Sander find, however, that there is less agreement on how to measure the phenomenon. They warn that the various types of integration measures should be interpreted with care, due to their shortcomings and in order to avoid jumping to the wrong policy conclusion. In their view, the recent acceleration in integration has been driven mostly by wholesale financial market integration and more general financial developments. The authors conclude that integration policies need to be supplemented by competition, financial development, and financial stability policies.