The ranks of those involved have grown: banks and insurance companies have been joined by investment houses and investment fund management companies, the savings of high-income customers by those of lower-income workers and pensioners, and individual investors by institutional investors. The operational overlap between different categories of intermediary and the substitutability of different types of instrument have increased.
Competition has become fiercer at both the domestic and the international level. The need to achieve a critical mass in order to operate in a market where the geographical boundaries and the supply of products are changing rapidly has prompted reorganizations, concentrations and the formation of conglomerates.