Introduction

Since the European Union hosts one of the largest financial sectors in the world, foreign groups have a strong interest in accessing EU markets. Under EU legislation, the European Commission can grant market access to non-EU jurisdictions (so called third countries), but only for specific financial sectors, and only if their regulation is considered equivalent to EU legislation. The present book aims at providing an in-depth analysis of the legal functioning of equivalence, while assessing to what extent equivalence rules and procedures are sound from a prudential perspective.The first chapter introduces the equivalence system to the reader, explaining its purpose and legal functioning, while specifying the scope of the book and the structure of the subsequent chapters.