Once upon a time, when asked what was the role of a financial system, we might have answered: to match the resources of savers and the needs of entrepreneurial types, so as to enable the deployment of capital in some prospectively profitable venture. That (rather 19th-Century-sounding) definition, with an emphasis on intermediation, is still correct as far as it goes.
In Europe, we are unquestionably moving towards integrated financial markets. Clearly, this will have an impact on the financing of housing as well. I have mainly described general consequences and will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about how this will affect the financing of housing associations. 5  BIS Review 69/1999