Luxembourg/Brussels, 16/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - After a meeting with Swiss federal finance advisor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpt on Tuesday 15 October, EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier repeated the European Commission's view that non-EU banks will have to have a subsidiary in the EU if they want to access financial markets in the EU.
Barnier said that because Switzerland is not a member of the EU, it would be necessary to examine the equivalence of its rules with EU legislation, adding that any bank from outside the EU would have to have a subsidiary in the EU that was more than simply a letter box. He added that having a subsidiary in the EU (one is enough, there is no need to have one in each member state) would give Swiss banks huge benefits and ensure that EU consumers are properly protected.
The draft directive updating the MiFID Directive (2004/39/EC) on financial instrument markets is being negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU at the moment (see EUROPE 10866 and 10719), and the commissioner said that some countries want banks from outside the EU to have subsidiaries in each member state.
Switzerland says that if this is agreed upon, then Swiss banks would lose out because they would be forced to shift some of their business to the EU. In the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, Widmer-Schlumpt said she couldn't imagine the EU closing its doors to Switzerland, which is one of its most important partners, and a solution would be arranged that would be satisfactory for the Swiss financial industry. She said that she would make any Swiss concessions on the savings tax directive conditional upon an acceptable compromise being reached on revision of the MiFID Directive, but Barnier said he had not heard of any bargaining and the two issues were separate. (MB/transl.fl)