The EU and financial regulation: power without purpose?

If the European Union (EU) has been an effective bulwark against ad hoc globalization in any economic domain, we may well find evidence from finance, the engine of cross-border economic activity. Yet our study revealed little indication of a distinctive EU approach for regulating financial services industries. Our findings suggest that European decision-makers tried mainly to secure full market integration inside the EU rather than shape regulation to meet a common public purpose, whether at the EU or global level. The policy framework adopted by the EU was essentially modeled on pre-existing United States (US) examples, and does not reflect a transatlantic difference in underlying values. We put forth several hypotheses about why the EU did not seek to manage globalization in the financial services area.