Brussels, 26/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a speech to the Brookings Institution in Washington on Wednesday 25 February, the Commissioner for Financial Services, Jonathan Hill, argued in favour of the benefits of including financial services in the future transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) currently under negotiation.
“The main added value of the TTIP will lie in regulatory cooperation (…), not in slashing down tariffs or only granting market access. Financial regulation should form part of it. Indeed, with our interconnected world, if we want to join up markets and improve investment flows, how can we possibly leave financial services out?”, the Commissioner asked, on his first trip to the United States since taking up office.
In late 2014, the Commission extended until mid-June 2015 the transitional period during which European banks exposed to the central counterparty clearing houses (CCP) of third countries where the legislation is not equivalent to the relevant European law will not be subjected to additional capital requirements. The aim is to use this extra time to find a solution which is acceptable on both sides of the Atlantic, to allow the recognition of the equivalence of the rules on European and American CCPs (see EUROPE 11216).
On Wednesday, Hill discussed the dossier with Tim Massad, the head of the CFTC committee responsible for controlling the central clearing houses in the United States.
Acknowledging the “resistance” of the United States to including financial services in the negotiations on the TTIP, the Commissioner nonetheless expressed his view that increased cooperation, together with a consistent application of international standards, would allow the two sides to “consult each other at an early stage in the regulatory process” and to “rely on each other's rules”.
Hill also spoke of the advantages for American investors of the future Capital Markets Union (CMU), a work in progress recently launched by the Commission, aiming to stimulate the financing of the economy by the financial markets (see EUROPE 11256). (Mathieu Bion)