Preface

As a team of authors we have followed the building of the European financial system from different angles. We have contributed to the academic literature on this topic. Moreover, one of us has been teaching a course on European Financial Integration, from which this book has emerged. On the policy side, the authors have been directly involved in the work of national administrations (i.e. the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, and the Dutch central bank) as well as the European institutions (i.e. the Council, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank). As part of our job, two of us have participated in many meetings in Brussels discussing the future of European financial markets and institutions, and negotiating new European financial services directives.

The authors would like to thank Wilco Bolt, Jean Frijns, Ronald Heijmans, Iman van Lelyveld, Bert Menkveld, Almoro Rubin de Cervin, Martijn Schrijvers and Casper de Vries for their advice on specific chapters.