Brussels, 03/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 3 April, the European Commission took note of a recent letter from the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) to the effect that the current bank capital requirements should be flexible and allow countries to introduce tighter rules if they wish. A spokesperson for EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier said that the Commission's aim was simply to point out that there tends to be a lot of misunderstandings about this issue and the Commission is seeking to strike a healthy balance between flexibility to reflect member states' concerns reflecting points of consensus, and the need for fair rules at EU level (because there is a single market) and at global level in order to achieve a good degree of coherence. The spokesperson said that the ESRB view came as no surprise and the Commission was pleased with its firm statements in favour of a single rule book in the EU.
In a letter to the European institutions about its macroeconomic view of the draft CRD IV legislation, the ESRB puts forward three notions that should be incorporated in the new rules - flexibility, coordination and the need to take action as quickly and efficiently as possible. It says that national and EU authorities need a discretionary power to introduce additional publication requirements and a temporary tightening up of a number of rules, such as the total bank funding requirement rules and liquidity requirements, also more targeted rules such as bank capital in certain areas in the event of problems in a specific market, such as household debt or a housing bubble. In the event of a problem with a specific financial market, the ESRB recommends coordination and exchange of information among member states ahead of any crisis rather than conferring an authorisation procedure on an EU body. (MB/trans.fl)