Stefano Battilossi - Böcker

The book provides a fresh historical perspective on the internationalization of banking business and the emergence of the Euro-Dollar and Euro-Bond markets from the late 1950s to the early 1970s -- a process which laid the foundations of the subsequent financial globalization. Since the mid-1950s, multilateralism and rapidly growing trade among OECD countries, the gradual (though asymmetrical) relaxation of exchange controls, and the return to external convertibility had sowed the seeds of economic interdependence and financial integration. All these factors actively encouraged American and European banks to pursue the expansion of their international business, largely free of regulations and controls affecting their domestic activity. International banking of the 1960s was also the forge of a restless wave of financial innovations. In fact Euro-Dollars (along with other minor Euro-Currencies) and Euro-Bonds fostered the emergence of fast-growing international money and capital markets, mainly based in the City of London, which rapidly became the new frontier of growth for banking business. Aggressive behaviour of American banks in Europe, coupled with an efficient multinational structure and a remarkable degree of financial creativity, added a sharp competitive edge to Euro-banking. Following their multinational customers as much as escaping from cumbersome domestic regulation, US banks rapidly attained a dominant position in London, while establishing at the same time their footholds on the Continent. This volume is based primarily upon largely unexplored archive records and addreses original issues. The causes of the primacy of London as an international financial centre are investigated, as well as the impact of Euro-banking on British clearing banks as a boost towards liability management and business diversification. Some wider perspectives are also included, which focus on innovative strategies designed by European banks -- such as consortium banking and other cooperative ventures -- in response both to the American challenge and to the establishment of the European Community.

During the twentieth century the financial sector became possibly the most regulated area of the economy in many advanced and developing countries. The interwar years represented the defining moment for the escalation of governments' intervention, turning the State into the core of financial systems in its capacity of regulator, supervisor or owner. The essays in this collection shed light on different aspects of the experience of financial regulation, ownership and deregulation in Europe and the USA from a secular historical perspective. The volume's chapters explore how the political economy of finance changed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how such changes were related to shifting attitudes towards globalization. They also investigate how regulation responded to governance problems of financial intermediaries and markets, and how different legal frameworks and institutional architectures influenced such response. The collection engages with a set of issues as diverse as they are interrelated across countries and over time: the regulatory attitude of British authorities toward the banking system and the stock exchange market in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the comparative evolution of bankruptcy laws and procedures; the link between state, regulation and governance in the evolution of the US and French financial systems; the emergence of banking regulation and supervision by central banks; the regulation and supervision of international financial markets since the 1950s; and the connection between deregulation and banking crises at the end of the past century. Taken as a whole, the chapters offer an intriguing insight into the differing ways western countries approached and responded to the challenges of the international financial system, and the legacy of this on the modern world. In so doing the volume holds up to historical scrutiny the debate as to whether overt state regulation of financial markets always has a negative affect on economic growth, or whether it can be an essential tool for developing nations in their efforts to expand their economies.

During the twentieth century the financial sector became possibly the most regulated area of the economy in many advanced and developing countries. The interwar years represented the defining moment for the escalation of governments' intervention, turning the State into the core of financial systems in its capacity of regulator, supervisor or owner. The essays in this collection shed light on different aspects of the experience of financial regulation, ownership and deregulation in Europe and the USA from a secular historical perspective. The volume's chapters explore how the political economy of finance changed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how such changes were related to shifting attitudes towards globalization. They also investigate how regulation responded to governance problems of financial intermediaries and markets, and how different legal frameworks and institutional architectures influenced such response. The collection engages with a set of issues as diverse as they are interrelated across countries and over time: the regulatory attitude of British authorities toward the banking system and the stock exchange market in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the comparative evolution of bankruptcy laws and procedures; the link between state, regulation and governance in the evolution of the US and French financial systems; the emergence of banking regulation and supervision by central banks; the regulation and supervision of international financial markets since the 1950s; and the connection between deregulation and banking crises at the end of the past century. Taken as a whole, the chapters offer an intriguing insight into the differing ways western countries approached and responded to the challenges of the international financial system, and the legacy of this on the modern world. In so doing the volume holds up to historical scrutiny the debate as to whether overt state regulation of financial markets always has a negative affect on economic growth, or whether it can be an essential tool for developing nations in their efforts to expand their economies.