The inevitable evolution of European financial markets

This paper pursues a twofold objective: (i) to show that the evolution of European financial markets hypothesized is reflected in a series of empirical descriptive data, which, though not providing clear-cut evidence in favor of our interpretation, make the latter plausible; (ii) to examine, with some detail, the main impacts that the transformation of the role of banks will have on the set-up of financial markets and on financial regulation in the euro area and in other parts of the EU (the so-called “Banking Union” (BU) and the so-called Capital Markets Union (CMU) process).