By providing the consulting services that are crucial for firms’ direct funding and that imply low capital and liquidity absorption, the banks could strengthen, not weaken, their relationships with firms, as well as their role in a more articulated financial system.
But they should not become of a persistent and structural nature. Unfortunately, very large imbalances were allowed to accumulate over recent years in several European countries. These imbalances stemmed from different sources: insufficient fiscal discipline, financial excesses, failure to implement structural reforms especially, but not exclusively, in the labour and product markets and significant competitiveness losses. All of this necessitates urgent and resolute adjustment.