This article considers the cross-border lending stock from 19 advanced countries as directed towards 28 European countries using quarterly data for the period 1999-2014. A "gravity" model is conditioned on distance and mass primarily measured by GDP as a benchmark adapted to explain the behaviour of cross-border lending stocks. We focus particularly on the role of EU integration on cross border banking, and show that there is no role for 'time zone' effects. The data permits an analysis of the

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... ffect of financial crises. These are differentiated by type into systemic banking crises and the Euro debt crisis Our results suggest that well-functioning institutions and EU Integration have a large effect on cross-border lending. However, there seems to be little impact from the single currency and from eliminating bilateral exchange rate volatility. These results are robust to a range of econometric specifications, samples, and institutional characteristics.