This solution has been hindered in Germany by the banking associations protecting profitable fees and hampering a strategic cooperation. As far as the European banking associations are concerned, they are not yet ready to design a common standard for retail payments. At all events, some progress can be identified in in-house, club and special associations’ solutions.
In Australia, for example, in the early 1990s the assets in managed funds were equivalent to around 40 per cent of GDP (Graph 7). Today, the figure is 125 per cent. And globally, asset managers are estimated to have around $ trillion in assets under management, equivalent to around 55 per cent of global banking assets.