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The Council has adopted the regulation for CRAs and updated the Capital Requirements Directive. This constitutes a significant part of the work programme it launched last autumn in response to the financial crisis.
It also adopted a regulation on cross-border payments, a directive on electronic money, as well as a decision establishing Community programme to support activities in the field of financial services, financial reporting and auditing.
The Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies establishes a common framework for measures adopted at national level in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the EU's internal market with comparable levels of investor and consumer protection from one member state to another and provides for a legally-binding registration and surveillance system for credit rating agencies issuing ratings that are intended for use for regulatory purposes.
The amendments to the Capital Requirements Directive include five main areas, namely:
Ø Strengthening the supervision of cross-border banking groups
Ø Improving the framework for securitisation practices
Ø Harmonising the classification of banks' "tier 1" capital funds and hybrid instruments, with a central role given to CEBS in ensuring greater uniformity of supervisors' practices.
Ø Introducing rules on liquidity risk management, in particular with regard to the setting up of liquid asset reserves, conducting liquidity stress tests and establishing contingency plans.
Ø Tightening the supervision of exposure to a single counterparty ("large exposures").
The regulation on Cross Border Payments extends the principle of the equality of charges to direct debits and addresses a number of enforcement problems.
The Electronic Money Directive updates the provisions of the former directive with particular regard to the level of initial capital and the prudential supervision of electronic money institutions. It is also aimed at ensuring consistency with directives on payment services.
The Community Financial Services Programme will enable the Community to participate in the funding of certain bodies, both European and international, so as to ensure the effectiveness of EU policies in the financial services sector and in the fields of financial reporting and statutory audit. Beneficiaries include the 3L3 Committees, the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation and EFRAG, as well as the Public Interest Oversight Board.
The adopted measures are attached below.