Financial Integration, Dis‐integration and Emerging Re‐integration in the Eastern Mediterranean, c.1850 to the Present

The financial integration that concerns us is that of the linking of national banking systems through the opening of branches by banks of one country in another. In the inter‐war period, banks from England and France established branches in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean, as did banks originating in those countries. However, after World War II there came a period of nationalization and nostrification that cut the countries' banks off from each other's markets. If domestic financial systems matter to economic development and growth, and if foreign banks contribute to the development of financial systems, then these policies were a self‐inflicted wound. As barriers to foreign banks have fallen since the mid‐1970s the region has started to integrate again, but in a process that is far from complete.