On 16th November 2009, SUERF, CEPS and the Belgian Financial Forum coorganized a conference "Crisis management at cross-roads" in Brussels. All papers in the present volume are based on contributions at the conference and the SUERF Annual Lecture which followed the event.

In Europe, the balance between publicly owned and privately owned financial institutions varies through time and from country to country. Historically, nationalisations and privatisations have moved the balance backwards and forwards. So has the recent financial crisis. Mathias Schmit, Laurent...