And this excludes the increased internationalisation of businesses, through the establishment of branches and plants abroad and through cross-border mergers. Also highly visible is the fact that the connection between financial markets has become stronger over time. The terrorist attacks in the United States and the dubious accounting practices revealed in the aftermath of the Enron collapse have hurt stock market sentiments world-wide.
The banking sector which dominates our financial system (it controls more than 90 per cent of financial assets) had traditionally catered to the needs of the Government for meeting their deficit financing, or to the large and well established corporate sector and also financed international trade.