Global financial stock of $140 trillion in 2005 was a an increase of $7 trillion from a year earlier. Eurozone added $3.3 trillion of assets in 2005, reflecting a 6% annual growth rate over the last ten years – nearly twice the pace of Anglo–Saxon rivals.

The depth of world financial markets rose to an all–time high of 316% – more than three times world GDP. With few exceptions, deeper financial markets create better access to funding for companies. 

Source: Wall Street Journal

Other Highlights from McKinsey Report:

• U.S. and Europe account for over 50% of the global financial assets, with U.S. alone representing over $47 trillion.
• Japan accounts for over $17 trillion, while the emerging Asia is close to $10 trillion in financial assets.
• Flows of investment across borders hit $6 trillion in 2005, above levels reached at the height of the 1990s stock-market bubble and more than double the figure in 2002. 
• The United States is at the epicenter, taking in about 85% of the flows from countries that are net exporters of capital. 
• The growth in trade in financial assets is proceeding about 50% faster than the growth in trade in goods and services, according to Kenneth Rogoff, an economist at Harvard.
• Stocks  account for nearly 50% of the growth in global financial assets in 2005.
• About 1 in 5 stocks world-wide is owned by someone who lives outside the country where the stock was issued, according to McKinsey.

"Of all the savings that citizens world-wide are willing to put outside their countries, the U.S. gets 85% of it," said Diana Farrell, director of the McKinsey Global Institute.  

More details at McKinsey Global Institute.