The differences in opinion are not related, as was for the payments, to the level of internationalisation of the bank or to the in or pre-in status of their home country. Differences in opinion reflect, instead, different modalities and level of preparation related to the Euro, mainly in terms of commercial and IT issues. These different expectations in terms of timing are reflected in the modality through which banks intend to deliver the conversion. Only a limited number of banks believe in a early corporate switch to Euro, although limited to those of large size and high level of internalisation. The majority is much more conservative on this issue.
Cash pooling features and conditions The banks' behaviour on cash pooling is quite diversified.
We distinguish the opinions on zero-balancing and on notional cash pooling. Zero-balancing cash pooling Most 'national' banks are basically focused on offering cash pooling within their own branch networks, without resorting, through overlay agreements, to alliances with other banks for covering countries where they are not present. Still, some of the banks have 'limited' plans to conclude agreements in order to add specific countries to their cash pooling coverage. International banks, on the other hand, are definitely focused on stressing the capability of their in-house cash pooling service covering all Euro land. So they seem not interested in actively promoting overlay cash pooling agreements since they are able to provide full coverage of the countries where their customers are located.