Reluctant Europeans? British and French Commercial Banks and the Common Market in Banking (1977–1992)

Abstract

More than ten years after the financial crisis, the challenges of European banking and of the eurozone highlight that the existence of a European common market in banking is at best partial. Examining how British and French commercial banks and banking associations responded to the plans for a European common market in banking between 1977 and 1992, this article contributes to explaining this partial character, and highlights that this project was primarily political. This challenges the widely held view that large companies tended to push for more integration. This article shows that until the mid-1980s, the banking sector was not necessarily calling for European financial integration in the form of a common market in banking for at least three reasons: they doubted the usefulness of such a move, they feared an increase in regulation, and I meant that banks focused more on domestic or global matters than on European ones.

From gentlemanly capitalism to lobbying capitalism: the City and the EEC, 1972–1992

“…The proposal had triggered a widespread rejection by the British financial actors who saw it as an attempt to increase regulation in the United Kingdom. Until the early 1980s, the British banks looked at European plans in banking and financial spheres with considerable distrust and, although they favoured EEC membership in general, were opposed to the plans for harmonisation – understood as a convergence with continental regulation – in banking regulation (Drach 2020). This section explores the influence – or at least the satisfaction – of the British financial industry in the field of banking, insurance, capital movement liberalisation and securities in the EEC.…”