Tag: financial sector

"A recovery in bank lending is only possible if banks can get rid of the vast amounts of 'toxic' assets on their balance sheets," writes Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), in a February paper.

The European Commission has proposed to strengthen the role of the EU's financial supervisory authorities to address shortcomings highlighted by the ongoing crisis. But the bodies will remain purely advisory.

"A quantum step needs to be taken to upgrade and adapt the structure of financial oversight in the EU," argues Karel Lannoo, the CEO of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), in a December report.

The bank bail-out guidelines agreed by the eurozone countries and the UK in Paris last Sunday were endorsed by all 27 EU member states during the first day of the European summit in Brussels. Leaders also agreed to review the rules governing global capitalism and to strengthen cross-border supervision of banks.

There are two key transatlantic policy lessons to be drawn from the recent dramatic events in financial markets regarding crisis management, writes Wolfgang Münchau, co-founder and director of Eurointelligence, arguing that the EU and the US can each learn from the other.

Gaps remain in the European and global supervisory architecture following unacknowledged "clear shifts" in the structure of financial institutions over the past year, according to Karel Lannoo, the CEO of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).

The EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) will prove a success "provided a few months are allowed to elapse before a rush to judgement", writes Peter Norman for EuroIntelligence.

If the EU-27 fail to agree on the management of foreign takeovers, member states will take measures on their own and risk creating obstacles to the free movement of capital, both from outside and within the EU, argues Philip Whyte in an autumn paper for the Centre for European Reform.

It would be surprising if the problems caused by the current credit bubble - one of the "largest ever" – did not trickle down into the real economy, says Wolfgang Münchau in an article that first appeared in the Financial Times.

Two major reports have forecast massive potential costs from damage caused by floods, storms and heatwaves resulting from global climate change.