The last couple of years, financial conglomerates have been established all over Europe. This horizontal diversification has not only attracted a great deal of attention in the banking and insurance sector but has also alarmed the supervisory authorities and the European Commission. Although the benefits of financial conglomerates are straightforward, it is clear that quite a number of potential risks can not be ignored. Since the phenomenon of "financial conglomeration" is rather new, the regulators do not possess a great deal of objective, scientific reference bases on which to construct...