22 June 2006

Speech McCreevy on the Commission's White Paper

On the occasion of the European Financial Services Round Table held in Stockholm Commissioner McCreevy summed up the main elements of the Commission's White Paper for the years to come. “The next four years will see a phase of consolidation of existing legislation, with few new legislative initiatives”, the Commissioner said. In financial services, the Commission is prioritising issues on mortgage credit and accessing a bank account. With regard to pension systems and the so-called 26th regime, the commissioner called this as a possible “alternative to the classical approach, namely harmonisation combined with mutual recognition.” At the same time McCreevy questions if such a regime is likely to “add an additional regulatory layer and further complexity.”

“Consumer representatives explained that they do not support the 26th regime. Furthermore, the burden for the regulators will be huge: they would be confronted with two different regimes which they need to supervise at the same time” He added.

With regard to prudential supervision, “the approach of “consolidating supervision' as included in the Capital Requirements and Financial Conglomerates Directives is the right way forward”, he said.

Also, with regard to retail financial services, the Commission intends to increase the consumer involvement in financial services policy making.

Finally McCreevy stated that the impact assessment prepared by the Commission on clearing and settlement showed that “post-trading activities are generally not sufficiently open to competition and there is a general lack of price transparency and proper competition in the industry.”

Commissioner McCreevy will come forward with a policy statement on these considerations in mid July.

Full speech

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