The Economy of Catalonia

termediation, which is performed by the set of institutions that make up
the financial system, is considered fundamental to the transformation of
the primary securities issued by institutional investors into indirect financial
assets, which are better suited to the preferences of savers, and to
guaranteeing payment mechanisms in the economy by means of efficient
management (Maroto, 1994).
The financial system of a Catalan State must include the financial tools or
assets, the institutions or intermediaries, and the financial markets themselves.
The greater the flow of savings that are generated and channelled
into productive investment and the more closely such investment matches
individual preferences, the greater the efficiency of the transfer process
will be.
When a new State is formed by the separation of a nation that aspires to
sovereignty from the State to which it belonged, it is difficult to engage
in serious discussion about the new State’s financial system without taking
into account both the economic, financial, institutional, and regulatory
context of the parent State and the economic and financial potential
of the new one. Other factors that cannot be overlooked are existing financial
aid programmes and their implications, and the architecture of
financial regulation. With this in mind it is important to bear in mind the
assets of both communities and the procedure for sharing out assets and
liabilities. This is a key factor for, if the process is carried out with common
sense and in a just and balanced way, as is desirable, it can also facilitate
recognition by all international authorities, notably the executive
organs of the EU (European Union). On the basis of this assumption, the
goal of formalising the financial system of the new State, with its own
functional structure, its constituent institutions and the markets which
enable it to operate, seems, not only feasible, but relatively easy to attain.
It should be stressed, however, that the effective and rational viability of
the hypothetical segregation of the Catalan financial system from the system
that currently provides its framework of reference – the Spanish
system as a whole – is closely linked to the context in which that segregation
is carried out, the manifest willingness of both parties to cooperate
being crucial.
We should avoid thinking that this last premise is overly naïve and unrealistic.
On the contrary, it seems legitimate – even though Cipolla (1988)
has made us aware that stupid behaviour (defined as behaviour which
104 The Economy of Catalonia