Brussels, 15/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has published the Financial Integration Monitor (FIM) 2005. European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services Charlie McCreevy says the document sets out “facts about European financial integration and how it is progressing. This year the focus is on new Member States and on retail integration”. As far as the last point is concerned, the report notes that integration of retail markets has so far been “very much limited to cross-border establishment for accessing local markets”. Nonetheless, he says, the new distribution channels (and more especially on-line services) would make consumers gradually less dependent on the traditional local establishment channel. This could facilitate the integration of retail financial markets. The FIM also notes that the cross-border retail activity, both direct and indirect, has known a real leap forward in most Member States. For the new EU nations, increased integration of these markets could also have an economic impact.
The 2005 Financial Integration Monitor is the second annual report. It comes in the wake of the request made by the Finance Ministers' Council of July 2000 to have more developed indicators to assess the state of financial integration within the EU.