At the aggregate euro area level, the financial sector accounts for a remarkable share of about 6% of total industries, i.e. including manufacturing, in terms of value added, with an average growth rate of more than 7%. 1  OECD, Enhancing the Performance of the Services Sector, 2006. BIS Review 137/2008  1  These numbers, however, mask a substantial heterogeneity among countries.
In some countries the services sector has expanded to a considerable size, while in others this is not the case – the range is from Luxembourg, where the financial services sector accounts for more than 16,8% of value added, to countries such as Spain where it accounts for about 4,2%. This leads us to the following questions.