"I don't believe it will necessarily be their priority for the year 2015, especially after the AQR (Asset Quality Review) which should give comfort to politicians and public opinion regarding the resilience of the banking sector", he said.
France has argued that proposals unveiled by EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier on January 29 would give US-based rivals in London the upper hand. US banks will be operating under their own regulatory limits.
Oudea said national legislation already existed in France and Germany ring-fencing proprietary trading, which he said would in any case remain a small part of banks' activities. "These laws are well-conceived and will be good laws to prevent us from going back to a model that would be too risky. This should be the model going forward and I think the new Commission and the new Parliament will have to look at this."
Oudea was equally wary about moves to create a financial transactions tax in the eurozone, a levy which will make banks repay some of the aid that kept them going during the crisis. "The risk is that you have activities that will move out of Europe and that certain companies will suffer when they issue debt - it will become more pricey. I think and I hope that pragmatism will prevail", he said.
The firmly pro-EU Oudea acknowledged that any gains by eurosceptic parties in May's European Parliament elections could make further political steps towards EU integration harder, and called on the bloc's leaders to focus instead on more pragmatic efforts to boost Europe's economy. "Before thinking about some huge political plan which might not take place anyway, (look) particularly on the economic side", he said, urging new joint EU initiatives on energy, infrastructure and the digital sector.
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