They were spoken back in 1954 by Germany’s first chancellor Konrad Adenauer in remarks underlining the need for a unified Europe. Since then, European integration has proven to be extremely successful in securing peace and economic prosperity, but there have also been shocks along the way which have threatened all these achievements. Europe has learned its lessons.
Contact with market participants will be essential for detecting important trends, such as growing financial imbalances, convergence of business models, similarities in investment strategies and innovations in financial instruments – to name just a few. It will be of immense value to establish a structured dialogue with the financial industry to this end.