The EU Single Banking Market Programme: Fit for Purpose?

Global Vision is a non-partisan campaign group that believes Britain needs to negotiate a looser, more modern relationship with the EU to reflect the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. The new relationship should be based on trade and cooperation, whilst opting out of political and economic union.

The EU Single Banking Market Programme represents the vanguard of the Single Market Programme for services. The principle of a single banking market allows for consumers to purchase financial services from any part of the EU and for
financial intermediaries to supply financial services to any part of the EU. The aim of the single banking market is to foster competition and greater efficiency in banking.
While it is clear that the Single Banking Market Programme has improved efficiency through greater consolidation and merger within continental Europe, improved competition has proved to be more elusive because of the existence of informal barriers to entry. In the UK, the single banking market is an irrelevance because it already operates in a competitive environment, with a relatively light regulatory touch and in the context of a shareholder value
maximisation model of bank management. It would be a hindrance only if the EU attempted to harmonise financial regulation around the continental model of stakeholder value.