Bankers in Europe lament that they are hobbled in global competition with American financial firms by the lack of a truly integrated home market to give them economies of scale and lashings of liquidity. They are not wrong. Where progress toward European banking integration is concerned, "could try harder" is the judgment of both a new academic study released in Britain on March 18th and a conference of financial bosses, Eurocrats and politicians held in Luxembourg the week before. In an earlier report, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a British-run network of European academics, defined Europe's financial markets as "fundamentally segmented". Five years, one euro area and a Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) later, it returns to the scene.
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