|
|
The Central Bank of Ireland has added its weight to calls for the European Union-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to tackle the thorny problem of cross-border harmonisation of regulation affecting derivatives. To date, moves by Europe to advance such regulatory co-operation discussions within the ambit of TTIP, a proposed free trade agreement between the EU and the US, have been thwarted. US authorities have concerns that rolling financial services regulation into TTIP talks could lead to the unravelling of the Dodd-Frank Act, instead maintaining such dialogue should continue separately in existing global and bilateral forums. The EU and the US already participate in regulatory discussions within the framework of the Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue (FMRD), a grouping of regulators.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the European Commission said that the agenda for the sixth round of talks on TTIP taking place in Brussels from July 14-18 has not yet been finalised.
Central Bank of Ireland markets director Gareth Murphy believes senior policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic should take responsibility for resolving areas of disharmony that are outside the reach of regulators. "There are a number of different issues you could put on that TTIP agenda in terms of co-operation arrangements, articulating what substituted compliance means, getting greater agreement on concepts and aligning monitoring and data collection systems." Murphy says TTIP is the forum ideally positioned, for example, to resolve the duplicative and costly dual data-reporting regimes for hedge funds; Form PF in the US and the alternative investment fund managers directive reporting guidelines in Europe. Murphy has doubts that regulators possess the appropriate tools to resolve such regulatory mismatches.
John Clancy, spokesman for trade at the European Commission, said following the round of talks next week, TTIP negotiations will start again in the autumn.
Full article (Risk.net subscription required)