Finance 2005 : quatre scénarios. L'évolution des services financiers aux particuliers en France, 1996-2005

Finance 2005: Four Scenarios. The Evolution of French Financial Services from 1996 to 2005
Disintermediation, computerisation, ephemeralisation, globalisation, have all been used for years in forecasting tremors in French banking and insurance. For a change, we have a text here which reveals that while French financial services may not be sheltered by important structural changes, their future for the next dozen years is largely open.
Basing themselves on a more or less liberal, social-Keynesian evolution in the socio-economic context and the French acceptance of change, especially if it is technological, the authors sketch four scenarios for the years to 2005. They have characterized them as “cautious liberalism”, “social harmony”, an “exploratory society” or “blocked society”.
The thought processes are not detailed, but four images are briefly described, each time in three dimensions (values and lifestyles; household incomes, consumption and savings; the socio-economic context), inferring consequences for banks and financial institutions. The possible futures for these institutions, according to the authors, remain very diverse and ultimately much more dependent on domestic variables than we usually imagine.