The resulting trust among those trading made it possible to make fast, sound decisions, leading to commercial success. However, digitalisation could mean that geographical proximity may become less and less important.
By fully exploiting the possibilities and potential of current and future information technology, it might be possible in future to overcome distances in space and time almost without any losses in directness and efficiency in the financial markets, too. This creates a totally new opportunity for the geographically fragmented continental market. But – my third step – how to seize those opportunities?