“…In fact, the existence of a strong and complex link between financial system and economic growth is clear from theoretical and empirical points of view, although this relationship is often expressed in a non-unique way (Wachtel, 2003). 5 In particular, Europe has experienced two related crises: a banking crisis linked to the losses in capital market securities and a sovereign debt crisis worsened by recession (Blundell-Wignall and Slovik, 2010;Issing, 2011). Obviously, the crisis has mainly affected countries with a greater level of financial development, which proved to be quite fragile with some issues that should be addressed quickly (Martin and Milas, 2010;Rose and Spiegel, 2011).…”