Dr Patrick Dixon answers questions from Prof Prabhu Guptara - UBS - on major challenges affecting banks over next three years. Future challenges to banks and financial services - what lies ahead? Pressures on performance and ethics.

Old style national stock exchanges cannot possibly survive. The London stock market will disappear altogether, as will every other national exchange in Europe to create a Pan-European Exchange.

Why national stock exchanges have no place in tomorrow's world.

There is an unstoppable drive to create a single pan-European exchange, following the London-Frankfurt alliance last July, and deals by Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Milan, Amsterdam, Zurich, Luxembourg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna. One virtual market needs only one computer server. New York, London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo are also discussing cooperation.

What will the future hold?

Time Magazine feature by Dr Patrick Dixon 4 April 1999

Economic Growth: What's next in the business cycle? Radical change and impact of new values. What happens after you press the global RESET button? Sept 11 2001 was like pressing the computer RESET button. As if someone turned off the whole economy for a microsecond, followed by a flash and a pause. Yet now the reloading is complete, it's becoming clear the whole system is working in a different way, with early indications of the greatest shift in values we have seen for over 50 years. (Comments written November 2001)