Barriers In EU Retail Financial Markets

Looking at the retail financial markets and identifying a number of ''Natural'' and ''Policy induced'' obstacles to free trade. The authors use the term ''Natural'' barriers to refer to those arising as a result of different cultures or consumer preferences, while different state tax policies or regulations are classified as ''Policy induced'' barriers. Before proceeding with a review of the major barriers, it is worth identifying an ongoing problem which hinders the integration of EU markets. EU states have a poor record of implementation of EC directives. There are two problems - passing the relevant legislation AND enforcing new laws.