The priority for those framing Europe's new financial regulations should be to encourage rather than impede the emergence of new providers of finance, including insurers, mutual funds, specialist lenders or even larger companies in the supply chain.
In America, Britain and even in parts of continental Europe, the bull market has created a new, confident class of investors in shares and mutual funds who scour the booming personal-finance press for investment ideas.
Last year the finance director of mid-sized Yamato Mutual Life Insurance hired U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to undertake the securitization of its 26-story main office in downtown Tokyo.