In addition, they often form a fairly closed ecosystem. This brings us to the legitimate question of whether we want to be heavily or even solely reliant on a few international players when it comes to making payments. In order to strengthen Europe’s independence in payments, it might be worth developing our own solutions.
Looking back In a 2006 paper I wrote, I described the corporate bond market as “expanding but nascent”1. While our local currency bond market has grown substantially over the last decade, it still remains one of the smallest in the region. The numbers show that the outstanding local currency bonds represent only 34.2 percent of the country’s GDP, largely composed of government-issued debt.