: Financial integration and risk sharing  z  Financial integration in EMU has been driven by the introduction of the single currency and by legislative and regulary policies striving for harmonisation  ⇒The impact of these factors is difficult to disentangle ⇒The authors tackle the banking sector, but other financial market segments are worth examining as well z  Financial integration in the form of cross-border banking integration increases consumption risk-sharing  ⇒May be worthwhile to make a distinction between intra and extra-euro-area risk sharing  13 November 2008  4  Comments on papers by P. Lane and S. Kalemli-Ozcan et al.
7 of 10  BIS Review 139/2008  Part I of their interesting and topical paper gives an overview of financial integration in EMU and describes the main legislative and regulatory policies that EU member states have implemented in financial markets. Part II provides empirical evidence for the impact of the single currency and European harmonisation policies on financial integration.