Trio of EU States Break Rank to Open Up Cross-Border Banking

France, Italy and Spain are proposing a package of reforms that would ease the way for banks doing cross-border business in Europe, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News.

A paper put forward by the three countries in recent days argues for the creation of a special framework covering banks with “material cross-border activities” so they could more easily use branches across the region, rather than relying on networks of national subsidiaries with diverse capital and liquidity requirements.

That would improve banks’ efficiency because capital and liquidity would no longer be trapped in different regions, the countries argue, pointing to ...