Adapting to the demands of financial globalisation is currently one of the most pressing preoccupations of bankers, financial institutions and financial authorities. Many aspects of this issue are addressed in this volume, based on a colloquium held in Vienna in April 2000 by the Société Universitaire Européene de Rechèrches Financières (SUERF) jointly with the Austrian National Bank.

Individual chapters, written by academics, central bankers and market professionals, focus on the strategic implications of global pressures which are tending to eradicate the previously clear boundaries of time, distance, legal frameworks, culture, languages and currencies.