Legal barriers to the international trade in financial services

New global trade regimes affect markets everywhere in the world. For this reason corporate financial firms which contemplate engaging in global business, are taking the agreements of the World Trade Commission and the World Trade Organisation particularly seriously. Until 1993, when the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) was adopted, no global consensus existed on how services should be traded internationally. Since the end of 1997, when the last discussions on trade in services were completed, a number of obstacles in transporting services globally have been encountered. Key problems to the international trade of services include burdensome licensing and certificate procedures, currency controls, transfer restrictions, limits on foreign equity. selective taxation and equity participation. In this article the discussion on the legal barriers to the mobility of financial services revolves around the problems of rendering international financial (banking) services in developing countries.