Global financial markets are on the threshold of a new age. After two decades of dramatic transformation in the structure and functions of national financial markets and financial service industries, a more or less perfectly integrated and globalized system has emerged more efficient, while the financial service industry has been reduced to little more than an information industry. However, the transformation has not been without implications. For many stakeholder groups in many companies it has meant crisis and difficult adjustments. This study focuses on the way in which different sequences of events in this globalization process affect the ability of financial markets to attract and channel savings in order to improve real national growth. The empirical analysis is regional in scope and involves the four major Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Being public sector dominated economies, they provide examples of all the problems faced by other countries looking for an opening of their financial markets. In addition to intra-Nordic comparisons, the development of the region is compared to the US, UK, German and Japanese markets.