Western Europe

The rapid pace of change in financial markets over the past two decades or so is often referred to as a financial market revolution. One ofthe major elements of this revolutionary change has been the blurring or outright elimination of the traditional and regulatory distinctions between banking and other financial or even nonfinan-cial businesses. Thispaper will examine current international trends in the combination of commercial banking with securities activities, investment banking, other financial activities such as insurance, and general commercial enterprises. The final section will discuss the reasons for these developments and whether the change is desirable