What impact do primary dealers have on the economics of any country, the EU, or the world economy for that matter, Lee Adler asks.  Here is a table of primrary dealers he has prepared.  World Primary Dealers

Adler looks around at the central banks: The PBoC (China) is also playing a growing role as it integrates its financial markets with the rest of the world’s, but its system does not use Primary Dealers, per se, and its linkages to the rest of the world are more obscure. The BoE (UK) is a small player.

Adler aruges that Central Banks’ policy doesn’t mean much. With Quantitative Easing, the central banks bring the money into existence by making deposits in the Primary Dealers’ accounts at the central banks in payment for the securities the central banks purchase from the Primary Dealers, or by making loans to them. What the dealers do with the money from there is up to them, although they are loosely required to purchase government securities when the central government auctions them. Since there are always plenty of other bidders for the government paper, the Primary Dealers end up with billions in excess cash.

Certainly the US is making the break up of Big Banks a big issue, and this may be why it is important to simplify and clarify their role and divide up their functions.