Banking in Europe : the harmonization process in establishment and services

Supervisor: F. SnyderDefence date: 6 March 1992First made available online on 10 September 2013.This research is an interdisciplinary approach to the EEC banking harmonization process. The methodology employed consists in focusing the subject from the legal, economic and political Science perspectives. Therefore, the underlying purpose of the research is to study the legal outcomes within their context. The research is subdivided in several parts. The first part is a legal approach to both the first and second Banking Directives as the cornerstones of the EEC banking harmonization process. The detailed analysis of both Directives from an EEC legal perspective is a condition precedent for the understanding of how is being shaped the Community Financial Policy. The Second Part is a political science approach to the role of interest within the EEC decision making process. More specifically, it is an attempt to show how banks can influence legislators for the achievement of their objectives. An additional study to this second part, is constituted by the analysis of the Community policies in consumer protection. This sector provides us with comparative information for an estimation of the importance of "interest” within the shaping of regulatory policies within the EEC. A socioeconomic approach to credit institutions strategies1 for the controlling of financial markets is the subject of the third part. Through the study of the United States current "deregulatory" trends, we show the interrelationship between the world financial markets. A second stage of this part connects the European context with the other representative world financial markets. Thus, similar behaviours can be remarked, which leads the author to the conclusion that neither national governments, nor the European Institutions are currently capable to regulate financial markets without a previous “consensus" with the financial institutions. The fourth part of the research consists in a critical approach to the institutional behaviour of the Community as regards policy-making for the achievement of an integrated financial market by 1992. This analysis shows that credit institutions, whose profits are greatly affected by public policy, have an extraordinary capacity to innovate and adapt, notably as a way of lawfully avoiding the effects of "public Controls”. Each of the four parts of the research used the same methodology. First, there is an introduction to establish the guidelines of the research approach to the subject. Secondly, there is a detailed analysis of the main issues constituting the field of the study. Thirdly, we draw some conclusions from the research