The Process of Change in Belgian Banking

Jean-Paul Abraham

Chapter 3 in The Future of Financial Systems and Services, 1990, pp 36-50 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The starting point of the present chapter is the contradiction — apparent or not — between the conventional wisdom about the Belgian financial system and the author’s own experience in Belgian banking. The conventional wisdom classifies Belgium among countries like Germany and Switzerland, where change and financial innovation are slow because the authorities are conservative and financial institutions are averse to risk and competition. The author’s experience in a middle-sized Belgian bank is to the contrary. Continuous change has meant that few people do the same things in the same way now as they did fifteen years ago; new units have been set up to produce and to sell new products; some traditional departments have been trimmed and their product mix has been changed; automation combined with telecommunication has penetrated everywhere. Of course, these developments have been taking place in banking all over the world. Maybe the ‘continuous change’ which impresses the author is only part of an adjustment to innovations, which had been initiated elsewhere and had to be integrated in each individual banking firm in order to stay in the market.

Keywords: Financial Institution; Domestic Market; Foreign Currency; National Currency; Small Open Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-10439-0_3

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-10439-0_3

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