Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-04-Speech-3-214"
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"en.20080604.24.3-214"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Kroes, Commissioner McCreevy, ladies and gentlemen, retail banking plays an essential role in the daily lives of families and of the vast majority of European businesses. It is of great economic importance, generates around 2% of the Community GDP, provides more than 3 million jobs and constitutes the largest banking sector, with gross revenue of more than 50% of the EU total.
In order to grasp its importance we can consider that one of its characteristic services, mortgages, constitutes the main financial risk taken on by European citizens, with outstanding balances of around 50% of the EU GDP, and that the volume of investment funds in the Member States is between 4 and 24% of domestic economies.
Despite the progress in the regulation of the sector and the improvements brought about by the introduction of the euro, the integration of the Community financial services markets and the promotion of competition in the sector do not appear to have achieved their full potential.
Only 1% of consumers in the European Union purchase cross-border financial services; there are considerable variations in prices between entities; the opportunities for choice are limited; there are still structural barriers that make it difficult to provide services and for those services to operate properly between different countries. The levels of profitability of retail banking vary widely, and establishments in the Nordic countries, Spain and Ireland are above average.
All of these issues are tackled in the reports in a reasonably balanced way. I congratulate the rapporteurs, Mr Pittella and Mr Karas, and I would like to express my satisfaction at the ultimate inclusion of aspects such as the recognition of the role of retail banking in properly passing on monetary policy conditions to the market, the value that the plurality and diversity of models for trade with banks, cooperatives and savings banks brings to European retail banking, the existence of an environment of cooperation promoting competition between independent entities, the need for an appropriate framework for financial intermediaries and more comparability between financial products.
Improving the functioning of this banking sector will provide more efficiency, will help to develop the potential inherent in all the European regions and will facilitate access to financial services, along with greater compliance with the coverage terms for our citizens."@en1
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