This article examines the liberalization and cross-border integration of European financial markets from a political-economic perspective. Three features particularly come to the fore: First, national liberalization and European integration have been two sides of one integrated political process that owes its specific dynamics to the conflicts of interest between different groups of actors. Second, not only effective liberalization, but also market integration relies on an extension and formalization of public financial market regulation – and thus seemingly on ‘more state’. Third, the established distinction between ‘state’ and ‘market’ and their respective roles is insufficient for a proper understanding for the politics of financial market regulation.