Banking association: Single financial market not yet completed
Few benefits for consumers so far

19 March 2004 – In a new brochure published as part of its Argumente zum Finanzmarkt series, the Association of German Banks (BdB) points out that national borders in Europe are still more or less insurmountable barriers for customers and banks in the retail banking sector and that differing legal frameworks have made it virtually impossible so far to use financial services across borders, such as opening an account via the Internet. Only if national financial markets are opened up further, it concludes, can consumers reap more of the benefits of the single market.

Although the BdB says that, since the adoption of the Financial Services Action Plan in 1999, the European Commission has been very active and many serious obstacles to the single financial market have already been tackled, it stresses that too much scope for interpreting directives is still allowed at national level, particularly in the fields of consumer protection and investor protection. Such scope often provides for exceptions, thus enabling countries to introduce or retain diverging national provisions. This makes access to new markets more difficult. To complete the single financial market, the BdB feels that further action is also required in connection with taxes, capital market law and European supervisory structures.

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