European Banks and the American Challenge

Abstract

Abstract The book provides a fresh historical perspective on the internationalization of banking business and the emergence of the Euro-Dollar and Euro-Bond markets from the late 1950s to the early 1970s —a process which laid the foundations of the subsequent financial globalization. Since the mid-1950s, multilateralism and rapidly growing trade among OECD countries, the gradual (though asymmetrical) relaxation of exchange controls, and the return to external convertibility had sowed the seeds of economic interdependence and financial integration. All these factors actively encouraged American and European banks to pursue the expansion of their international business, largely free of regulations and controls affecting their domestic activity. International banking of the 1960s was also the forge of a restless wave of financial innovations. In fact Euro-Dollars (along with other minor Euro-Currencies) and Euro-Bonds fostered the emergence of fast-growing international money and capital markets, mainly based in the City of London, which rapidly became the new frontier of growth for banking business. Aggressive behaviour of American banks in Europe, coupled with an efficient multinational structure and a remarkable degree of financial creativity, added a sharp competitive edge to Euro-banking. Following their multinational customers as much as escaping from cumbersome domestic regulation, US banks rapidly attained a dominant position in London, while establishing at the same time their footholds on the Continent. This volume is based primarily upon largely unexplored archive records and addreses original issues. The causes of the primacy of London as an international financial centre are investigated, as well as the impact of Euro-banking on British clearing banks as a boost towards liability management and business diversification. Some wider perspectives are also included, which focus on innovative strategies designed by European banks — such as consortium banking and other cooperative ventures—in response both to the American challenge and to the establishment of the European Community.