Foreign bank branches and subsidiaries have more than doubled their market share in the Norwegian banking market since 1999. The share is considerably higher than in Sweden and Denmark, although the proportion of foreign institutions has also increased markedly in these countries. The sharp rise in Finland is due to Nordea’s becoming a Swedish rather than a Finnish bank in 2004. Cross-border activity contributes to increased competition, a wider range of options for operators and the sharing of expertise. With banks from several geographical markets, the financial system is also less vulnerable to cyclical developments in any one country. Growth in new, less well-known markets makes risk assessment more demanding. A consequence of cross-border institutions may also be that turbulence in financial markets in one country more easily spills over to other countries. Moreover, a crisis may be more complicated to resolve in an internationally active institution than in a national institution. Conglomerates The trend in financial markets is moving towards large financial conglomerates and alliances. In addition to traditional banking services, these conglomerates also offer other financial services. Large banking and financial groups in Norway have substantial market shares in several sectors. Compared  2/6  with other Nordic banking conglomerates, Norwegian banking conglomerates earn a larger share of their revenues from services outside the bank itself. Banks that grow into other sectors will face challenges relating to risk management, product knowledge and customer relations.
Anne Le Lorier: Regulating non-banks – ways forward and challenges ahead Speech by Ms Anne Le Lorier, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, at the ACPRBank of France Conference “Financial regulation-stability versus uniformity, a focus on nonbanks actors”, Paris, 28 September 2015. *  *  *  Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues and Friends, On behalf of the Banque de France and of the ACPR, I would first like to thank very much the speakers and the participants in today’s conference for the quality of their presentations. Indeed, they helped us to have insightful debates on the ongoing efforts made to prevent systemic crisis as much as possible, strengthen the global financial system and its resilience i.e. its capacity to withstand systemic shocks. As illustrated today, this is not an easy task and the global regulators are facing many challenges in shooting at a moving target: the financial system not only adapts, but also transforms itself and anticipates regulatory changes, sometimes constructively, sometimes less, thereby continuously modifying the sources, the channels and the shape of systemic risks. Regulation itself can be ill-designed, too narrowly focused or can generate unintended consequences.