Lately, it has been possible to witness an important development of the economic literature on the relation between financial development and economic growth. Numerous economists have explained theoretically that a good functioning of the financial system has a positive effect on the economic growth. Before studying the relation between these two components, we need to know the factors influencing the development of the financial system and those who intervene on the economic growth. For this reason, we shall analyze, during a first stage, the importance of the legal and institutional framework as a factor explaining the financial development level, referring to the different theories that approached this aspect. Then we shall present the factors influencing the economic growth. The results show that financial development has a positive effect in the long run, despite the fact that it is not proven in the short term as well. At the same time, financial development influences economic growth, a fact proven by the Granger causality test applied on a panel of countries.