We investigate the financial crisis as a cut-off point in EU financial systems’ evolution and assess its effects on cross-country convergence patterns. Before the crisis, we observe a rise in the centrality of the financial sector, driven by an upward convergent pattern of bank credit. This inflated leverage ratios across all economic sectors, and a catch-up phenomenon is retrieved in the leveraging of the real sector. The crisis caused a general deleveraging across all economic sectors, with a downward convergence pattern characterizing the financial sector, and triggered an upward convergent pattern in the level of insurance products in households’ portfolios.

中文翻译：

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危机中的欧洲金融体系：模式和趋同

我们将金融危机作为欧盟金融体系演变的一个分界点进行调查，并评估其对跨国趋同模式的影响。在危机之前，我们观察到在银行信贷向上收敛模式的推动下，金融部门的中心地位上升。所有经济部门的杠杆率都被夸大了，在实体部门的杠杆作用中又出现了追赶现象。危机导致所有经济部门普遍去杠杆，金融部门呈现向下趋同模式，并引发家庭投资组合中保险产品水平的向上趋同模式。