International financial markets are said to be excessively volatile due to destabilizing speculation and excessive market volume. Transactions taxes might help. From studying the literature we conclude that there must be an optimal market liquidity, which minimizes excess volatility. There are...

European monetary integration was one element in the process of financial market integration but by far not the only one. The paper traces the development of financial markets and systems in Europe from the beginnings of the euromarkets in the 1950s over early exchange rate arrangements and the...

The importance of an efficient securities clearing and settlement system lies on the safer transfer of ownership of assets against payment. Such a system must be developed in a way to minimize the risks involved on securities transactions, and it must still offer lower costs, which do not hinder...

EU enlargement rests on the proven success of European unification. European monetary integration and the introduction of euro are probably the best examples of integration. The EU financial sector has been going through a large restructuring program in the last decades. There was a continuous...

In a simple portfolio choice model of two assets a foreign exchange transactions tax is implemented. We show that the graph in the mu-sigma[square] range is still a parabola and delineate its characteristics for altering tax rates. We presumed a risk avers investor seeking to minimize investment...

This study has investigated to which extent rating events influence sovereign bond yield spreads and overall financial market volatility. While rating agencies are part and parcel of today's financial markets, the study succeeds in tracing some independent effect that ratings exert on financial...