CEBS und die Zukunft der Finanzdienstleistungen [en] 

As well as the call-back procedure, the EurActiv interview covered a wide range of topics: the role of CEBS (the Committee of European Banking Supervisors), banking consolidation and the Europe-wide opening of retail markets for financial services.

CEBS is one of the committees set up by the Lamfalussy process. It is a level 3 committee, made up of industry representatives and financial experts, who advise on the technical details of implementing regulations, necessary to put into practice the directives of the financial services action plan (FSAP). 

CEBS advises on the banking legislation - there are similar committees for securities (CESR) and for insurance and pensions (CEIOPS). Explaining his role as Chair of CEBS consultative panel, Mr Van den Spiegel said: "The mission of the panel is to help CEBS in setting up planning, finding priorities and signalling major issues and problems. So the panel does not overlap with the normal consultation procedures: it is more a think-tank for CEBS."

Democratic input

The issue of democratic involvement in the FSAP legislation was discussed in the context of the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD). A dispute has arisen among the EU institutions concerning ‘call back’ provisions which would have been explicitly given to the Parliament by the ailing EU Constitution. Under the proposals, details of directives would have been hammered out in committee but Parliament would have been given the power to call back legislation if they felt it was not working properly. Mr van den Spiegel pointed out that in such technical legislation, ‘grey areas’, which overlapped between technical detail and policy questions, would always exist. He hoped that the dispute would be resolved by continuation of the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ (an understanding amongst the institutions that Parliament would be permitted to call back problematic legislation on financial services) which has existed up to the present. (See also EurActiv 14 July 2005.)

Lead supervisor

Mr van den Spiegel did not feel that the time was right for the CEBS to take the role as Europe’s lead supervisor. "You could do it, but that would be revolution," he said. In the end, he felt that it did not matter. The fundamental point was that all supervisors should act "as one, with the same approaches, the same priorities, the same rule-books". The question then, of whether there should be one single supervisory body or a number of convergent ones, was essentially a political one.

Banking consolidation

The Commission’s role in the area of cross-border banking mergers, said Mr van den Spiegel, is to remove unnecessary barriers, not to push for mergers as such: this was a question for markets. Some barriers, he said, were natural – like language and cultural preferences. But others were artificial: it was these that the Commission should concentrate on.

Retail financial services

Mr van den Spiegel took the view, again, that this could not be achieved as some sort of political goal. The best way to go about opening up access by consumers to a fully European market was to approach it on a product by product basis. Some products were more suited to cross-border use and the market was already there – such as credit cards. Others, however, were dependent on local consumer protection rules, and so more inaccessible for cross-border market entrants. A number of initiatives, such as the consumer credit directive, had already got bogged down in disputes over detail. The way forward, according to van den Spiegel, is a common basic approach to the essentials of consumer protection. Once basic agreement had been reached on principles, the way would be eased for convergence on detail in each specific area.

Please click here  to read the full interview.