Tag: Financial regulation

Socialising public debt is already posing a risk to the still-stable eurozone countries. To do the same thing with bank debt could pull hitherto sound economies into the abyss, argues Hans-Werner Sinn for Project Syndicate.

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the US Congress is ready to reap the benefits of the European Parliament's strengthened role and renew its ties with legislators in Brussels.

The UK wants to see European commissioners "named and shamed" if they add to the burden on small businesses, as part of a more focused approach to reducing unemployment in Europe.

"The European Commission should reform the way it takes advice on financial matters and it cannot do that without bringing about a deep change in its financial expert groups," Yiorgos Vassalos, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), told EurActiv Germany in an interview.

The word of the summit is 'tax' as EU leaders meeting in Brussels contemplate a one-off levy on bankers' bonuses and put pressure on the International Monetary Fund to endorse a global financial transactions tax, otherwise known as a Tobin tax.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s new commissioner-designate in charge of regulating the internal market and financial services industry, said he wants to reconcile French citizens with free-market policies by putting them at the service of citizens and jobs. EurActiv France reports.

A major draft EU law on market infrastructure will be tabled next July to make share and derivatives trading less risky for investors and the broader financial system from late 2012, industry sources said on Monday.

"The crisis demonstrated the limited capacity of EU institutions to conduct Union-wide anti-crisis policies," Marek Dąbrowski, president of the Centre for Social and Economic Research (CASE), told EurActiv in an interview, predicting a "near-stagnation scenario" for many EU economies.

Although the crash of the subprime market is widely seen as the catalyst of the recession that took the world by surprise in September 2007, the European Commission will take stock of a new school of thought which argues that the dominance of external ownership in financial services ultimately caused the crisis.

Last night's (25 September) roundtable talks produced underwhelming results as widely expected agreements were not forged on regulations of financial services, global imbalances and soaring unemployment levels.

The EU will go with a clear position to the G20 meeting next week in Pittsburgh, the Union's leaders announced yesterday evening (17 September) following an extraordinary summit held in Brussels.

The European Commission faces "a difficult and precise balancing act" in drawing up proposals for a new framework on EU financial and economic supervision due this autumn, writes Karel Lannoo, CEO of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), in an August paper.

With pressure mounting over a European Commission proposal on hedge funds and private equity, French pro-regulation MEP Jean-Paul Gauzès has been nominated to steer the controversial draft through the European Parliament.

EU leaders took aim at the banking sector yesterday (31 August), pledging to check banks' power and push for limits on bonus payments at a G20 summit later this month.

The UK government's reaction to EU proposals on financial regulation will provide a "potential watershed moment" for UK-EU relations, argue Sir Brian Unwin, ex-president of the European Investment Bank, and Graham Bishop in a June report published by the London-based Federal Trust.

The economic and financial crises call for a courageous response rather than technical, "pernickety rules", write French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a joint editorial published in the Sunday newspapers.

The European Parliament adopted new rules yesterday (22 April) to cut risk in the insurance sector and better protect policyholders.

The Irish government has announced plans to establish a 'bad bank' in a bid to quarantine toxic assets and restore confidence in its ailing financial system. The move comes as part of a tough emergency budget, and makes Ireland the first EU member state to adopt such a strategy to deal with the credit crisis.

In response to the worst crisis in decades, the European Union has agreed on a series of rules and new watchdogs to regulate and supervise global financial markets. EurActiv offers an overview of the state of play.

European Union lawmakers voted strongly in favour of mandatory registration and supervision of credit rating agencies on Monday (23 March) as policymakers seek to better protect investors after the worst market turmoil in decades.