EU financial integration : is there a 'Core Europe'? ; evidence from a cluster-based approach

Numerous recent studies, e.g. EU Commission (2004a), Baele et al. (2004), Adam et al.(2002), and the research pooled in ECB-CFS (2005), Gaspar, Hartmann, and Sleijpen(2003), have documented progress in EU financial integration from a micro-level view.This paper contributes to this research by identifying groups of financially integratedcountries from a holistic, macro-level view. It calculates cross-sectional dispersions, andinnovates by applying an inter-temporal cluster analysis to eight euro area countries for the period 1995-2002. The indicators employed represent the money, government bond and credit markets. Our results show that euro countries were divided into two stable groups of financially more closely integrated countries in the pre-EMU period. Back then, geographic proximity and country size might have played a role. This situation has changed remarkably with the euro's introduction. EMU has led to a shake-up both in the number and composition of groups. The evidence puts a question mark behin d using Germany as a benchmark in the post-EMU period. The ¯ndings suggest as well that ¯nancial integration takes place in waves. Stable periods and periods of intense transition alternate. Based on the notion of 'maximum similarity', the results suggest that there exist 'maximum similarity barriers'. It takes extraordinary events, such as EMU, to push the degree of ¯nancial integration beyond these barriers. The research encourages policymakers to move forward courageously in the post-FSAP era, and provides comfort that the substantial di®erences between the current and potentially new euro states can be overcome. The analysis could be extended to the new EU member countries, to the global level, and to additional indicators

The German mortgage banking market : results of an empirical study

Das Firmenkundensegment und die Präsenz auf den internationalen Märkten für gewerblichen Hypothekarkredit und der Finanzierung öffentlicher Haushalte gewinnen für die deutschen Hypothekenbanken bis zum Jahr 2007 erheblich an Bedeutung, so das Ergebnis eines Forschungsprojekts der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Die Immobilienfinanziers werden ihre Geschäftsbeziehungen zu Unternehmen in den nächsten fünf Jahren sowohl qualitativ als auch räumlich ausbauen. Real Estate Investment Banking und Expansion ins Ausland stehen auf der strategischen Agenda der Hypothekenbanken ganz oben.The German mortgage banking market - Results of an empirical study: The corporate client segment as well as the presence in the international market places for commercial real estate lending and for the financing of public sector institutions will considerably gain in importance for German mortgage banks until the year 2007 – a key result of a research project of the Goethe University Frankfurt. German mortgage banks will expand their business relationships to corporate clients in the next five years both qualitatively and geographically. Real Estate Investment Banking and the international expansion are on top of mortgage banks' strategic agenda

Der steinige Weg tschechischer Banken in die EU - Ein kritischer Blick zurück und ein positiver Blick nach vorne

Dieser Artikel zeichnet kritisch den Weg nach, den tschechische Banken beschritten haben, um sich für die Aufgabenstellungen einer erweiterten EU zu rüsten. Es wird gezeigt, dass staatliche Interventionen, Privatisierungsfehler und die Bankenkrise Mitte der 90er Jahre ihre Wirkung in der Gegenwart und in der Zukunft entfalten. Heute sind tschechische Banken gut positioniert, um die sich bietenden Zukunftspotenziale auszuschöpfen