ABSTRACT
The roots of today's competition policy lie in heavy industry. In Europe, the origins of competition policy can be traced back to the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty of 1951, and the need to put in place mechanisms to ensure competitive conditions as coal and steel markets were internationalised in the post-war period. The interdependent nature of today's banking is reinforced by other measures, such as co-operation between banks over the interconnection and operation of payment systems. Competition policy could, therefore, address the extent to which asset managers provide value for money for captive end savers. Globalisation has now extended from trade in goods and services to flows of finance. Globalisation in finance is today perhaps somewhere near the position globalisation in the real economy was in the pre-war period: destabilising if left to its own devices.
