Last November, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso sought to address the fragmented and disjointed structure of financial regulation in Europe, by asking a group of prominent economists to come up with a roadmap towards regulatory integration.

Barroso said at the time: "There is an obvious mismatch between European and global financial markets, and supervision which remains largely national. There is wide agreement that we need to bridge that gap but different ideas on how to go about it. The group's role is to bring forward concrete proposals which will contribute to greater financial stability and help maximise protection for depositors, policyholders and investors."