Plenty of Work Left to Make Capital Markets Truly Global

Spellman, James D., Strongin, David G., American Banker

Financial markets today are connected much the same way other markets were in the days of the Great West Indies Trading Co., though now the ties are vastly more complex.

What has remained since the 1600s is the enormous benefit from trading between countries: access to a wider variety of goods and services at lower costs. What is new is the growing interdependence of economies; the demand for capital in one market, for example, is supplied increasingly by investors based elsewhere.

Securities trading occurs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as firms' "books," detailing customer trade demands, rotate from one financial center to another.

The growth in cross-border financial activity is enormous. U.S. transactions (purchases and sales) in foreign securities climbed more than 100-fold since 1980, from $53 billion to $5.8 trillion …

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Publication information: Article title: Plenty of Work Left to Make Capital Markets Truly Global. Contributors: Spellman, James D. - Author, Strongin, David G. - Author. Magazine title: American Banker. Publication date: May 31, 2002. Page number: 7. © 2009 SourceMedia, Inc. COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group.

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