SEPA was initiated by the European banking industry as a reaction to the Eurosystem’s call for more efficiency in cross-border retail payments 1 and to the introduction of the cross-border payments regulation, which eliminated the differences in charges for cross-border and national payments in euro.
Using German data it can be shown nicely, first, that home bias has declined and second, that EMU plays a prominent role in how the portfolios of German investors are diversified internationally.