Speech of Minister Zalm on ‘Enhancing supervisory convergence’

04 November 2004

Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm said that further convergence towards a more European supervisory structure could be expected. “We may have to start thinking about more European solutions for supervising truly European financial groups.', Zalm said.

Minister Zalm mentioned three criteria for good European supervision: effectiveness, efficiency and inter-institutional/political balance. Effectiveness means that supervision has to follow the structure of the market. “For supervision to be effective, we must continuously adjust to the integration of financial markets”, the Minister said

With regard to the inter-institutional and political balance, Mr Zalms pointed out a discrepancy between supervisors having a national mandate, but increasingly international responsibilities. The Minister said that “a lead supervisor can not change much about that. We may therefore have to start thinking about more European solutions for supervising truly European financial groups”.

Full speech

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