Brussels, 23/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 23 February, the economic and monetary affairs committee of the European Parliament discussed the amendments to the draft report by Renato Soru (S&D, Italy) on the proposed regulation on the transparency of securities financing transactions.
“Many amendments go in the same direction. There are a few differences of opinion, but I am confident”, Soru said. One of the points to be debated concerns the scope of application of the legislative text and, in particular, the exclusion of central banks from the obligation to provide certain details. “The central banks cannot be completely excluded”, said a representative of the European Commission, who feels that this would send out “the wrong signal” if these entities were unable to provide the national authorities with certain information. Why is the ECB so afraid of more transparency, when only the competent authorities will have access to the data, asked Rina Ronja Kari (GUE/NGL, Denmark).
Still regarding the scope, Soru took position against the exclusion of financial guarantee contracts with transfer of ownership. If we do this, “we will undermine the scope of application”, he argued, as these securities constitute 95% of the market. The Commission supports this view.
Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland) called for exemptions in the case of transactions entered into with SMEs. She acknowledged that there was a difference of opinion on the question of haircuts on assets received as collateral in non-centrally cleared securities financing transactions.
The parliamentary committee will hold its vote on Monday 23 March. Once it has been adopted at plenary, the EP can start negotiations with the Council of the EU, which reached an agreement in principle on the draft regulation in late November 2014 (see EUROPE 11201). Readers may recall that this text was proposed to prevent the proposed regulation on the structural reform of banks from leading to banking activities being diverted into the shadow banking sector. (Mathieu Bion)