Consolidation
Implementation, enforcement, evaluation and consolidation: these are words Mr McCreevy has been using since the start of his tenure and his tune has not changed. The FSAP must be put into practice in member states, it must be properly regulated and its effectiveness must be monitored. Pre-implementation impact assessments will be done on legislation as well as ex-post evaluations.
Supervision and regulation
Enforcement by supervisory authorities is essential. The structures put in place by the Lamfalussy process - Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CESR), Committee of European Securities Regulators (CEBS) etc. - will remain in place: their effectiveness will be monitored and changes made if necessary.
What remains to be done
- Capital Adequacy Directive: this implements the Basel II accord into EU law and is currently with the Parliament. Mr McCreevy hopes it will be finalised by summer or in the autumn of 2005 at the latest.
- Clearing & settlement: it has been strongly suggested that there may be proposed legislation on this but a final decision has not yet been taken.
- Measures on the company law directive, solvency II and the payments directive are also still to complete the legislative process.
New measures
The green paper suggests there may be need for action in two specific areas:
- Retail integration: This lags far behind retail and further integration is needed to allow consumers access to bank accounts, insurance etc throughout Europe. Wider access to mortgages is also necessary. The Forum Group on mortgage credit compiled recommendations on this and there will be a separate green paper in the summer 2005.
- Asset management: There have been hindrances in the availability of cross border investment funds, which may be caused by ineffective use of the current UCITS directive. A separate green paper on this issue will be published in July 2005.
International
There will be emphasis on harmonising rules, in particular on accounting and company reporting, at international level with the US and with the fast emerging financial services economies in Japan, China and India. Mr McCreevy noted that a recent technical advice paper from CESR had found that Canadian, Japanese and US accounting rules were already broadly equivalent to the EU's international financial reporting standards.
