Banking integration presents fewer political and legal problems if banks (not taxpayers) pay into a European fund to provide deposit guarantees.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

It promotes greater financial access and integration for immigrants through banking, mortgage services, financial education and scholarships.

ECONOMIST: Immigration

Moreover, it would be instrumental in fostering the efficiency of the internal capital markets and market integration in retail and corporate banking (see Barba Navaretti et al. 2009).

FORBES: Too Big To Fail Or Too Small To Maintain Stability?

At the Brussels meeting, eurozone leaders agreed to start building a banking union on 1 January to speed up economic integration.

BBC: David Cameron

Investors were also waiting for details from the European Union summit in Brussels, where leaders are discussing fiscal integration and the co-ordination of banking systems.

WSJ: Banks Drag European Markets Lower

Mr Cameron told the House of Commons there had been some "limited progress" among eurozone countries towards integration, and that it needed a "working banking union" to ensure stability.

BBC: David Cameron

In November 1990, the longest-serving member of her cabinet, Geoffrey Howe, resigned over her hostile position on a process of European integration, under which more national powers, on issues from banking regulation to working practices, were moving to Brussels.

WSJ: Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Dies