Joint 3L3 letter to the European Commission on M&A

03 October 2006

The Three Level Three Committees sent a joint technical letter to the Commission regarding the proposal to amend the procedural rules and evaluation criteria for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increase of shareholdings in the financial sector. The Lamfalussy Committees are concerned that the speed of the decision making process should not be the overriding objective. To their experience meeting the time-limits of current EU legislation already poses a challenge in particular complex cases.

With regard to the assessment criteria the Committees stress the importance to maintain the equilibrium between requirements for authorisation and for acquisition to avoid regulatory arbitrage.

As to Commission’s access to confidential prudential information the Committees criticize that the current definitions are too vaguely defined. As there is already the possibility to challenge in the courts any supervisory decision the Committees criticize that it “is not proportionate … that all confidential prudential information … is open to the Commission.”

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