ECRI Book Launch Event - Diversity in the Banking Sector in Europe: Is it a prerequisite for stability and growth?

On 26 June 2009, CEPS hosted a special event to launch a book that thrives to shed some light on the following question: Is diversity in the banking sector a prerequisite for stability and growth?

Amid stormy waters, financial systems develop and evolve. New institutional forms and new instruments are invented and used. Some of them turn to be successful and others may disappear: A process of creative and dynamic competition argues for diversity. Diversity offers an optimal basis for new ideas to come to life, for existing ideas to evolve and also for old ideas to make their come-back.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the foundations of several decades of modern and innovative financial systems have been damaged. This has triggered massive state interventions and has led to revamp the regulatory structures and frameworks. While many voices called for going back to more traditional approaches to banking and finance, no one has argued for diversity.

This event marked the launch of a new CEPS book, authored by Rym Ayadi, Reinhard H. Schmidt and Santiago Carbó Valverde to investigate whether diversity in the banking sector is a prerequisite for stability and growth. The research is a result of two years project supported by the European Savings Banks Group, the Confederación Española de Cajas de Ahorros, the Deutschen Sparkassen- und Giroverband and the Austrian Savings Banks Association.

Click here to download the programme.