Globalisation has many dimensions, all of which have been stimulated by the decline in costs of communication, transportation, data processing, and transactions. The second factor is the advances in creating a common regulatory framework across the EU as part of the effort to complete the Internal Market in financial services.
The adoption of a common EU policy has been accompanied by liberalisation of financial markets in the Member States. As I will discuss shortly, however, there is still some distance to travel in this respect. The third factor is the adoption of the euro.