Explaining cross-national variations in universal banking in nineteenth-century Europe, North America, and Australasia

A universal banking system is defined as a system in which banks engage in both lending and the underwriting of securities. In contrast, a specialized banking system keeps the two activities under separate roofs. Universal banking is commonly believed to have existed before 1913 in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, whereas specialized banking was mostly encountered in France and the Anglo-Saxon countries. The purpose of this chpater is to explain this variation.