Money, Markets and Microelectronics: Building the Infrastructure for the Global Finance Sector

The rise of a global finance sector is one of the most salient aspects of the whole process of globalisation, and a true phenomenon of our times. Whilst various politico-economic changes were necessary to achieve this change, the simple fact is that it would have been impossible without the prior revolution in information and communications technologies (ICTs). These new technologies—such as semiconductors, computers, computer networks and communications satellites—when combined provided the necessary infrastructure for the emerging global finance system. This paper describes the way various finance markets, mostly American, grew and aggregated to form huge, global markets through the application of increasingly sophisticated and capable ICT systems. In doing so it foregrounds the essential role of sustained development in ICT capability in order to complement the analysis offered by literature written from neo-classical economics or institutionalist perspectives. The developing finance system was the product of many forces, but it was only when the appropriate technological, and particularly systemic, arrangements were in place that the finance sector could become truly global in scale.