Wednesday, December 2, 2009

ECOFIN agreement on the EU financial supervisory directive, now up to the Eur. Parliament

Today (Dec. 2) The ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Affairs) Council reached a so called "political agreement" on the financial regulation directive. According to EU's legilstive procedures, the "ball" now passes to the European Parliament.

The agreement reached, if it remains as is wil lead to the establishment of:

a) European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) that would be responsible for macro "prudential oversight" of the financial system within the EU.

b) a European Banking Authority (EBA)

c) a European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and

d) a European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)

These will be created by the transformation of existing EU level supervisory committees.

A European System of Financial Supervisors (ESFS), consisting of a network of national financial supervisors will be working in tandem with the above 3 (b, c, d) new European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs).

The EU's Finance Ministers also agreed on the Single European Payment Area (SEPA) aimed at achieving an integrated and competitive internal market for Euro payments.

The UK government claims that it secured the provisions that would avoid the UK taxpayer to pay for bail-outs decided at EU level rather than Westminster!

Let's see what the European Parliament says.


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