“The discussions on the securitisation package have reached an important and critical phase” following last week's trialogue, said the Maltese finance minister, Edward Scicluna, taking stock of the ongoing financial legislative dossiers at the 'Economic and Financial Affairs' Council of Tuesday 23 May.
He announced that the positions of the European Parliament and of the Council of the EU have “really” moved closer together on the legislative proposal aiming to breathe new life into the markets for securitised financial products (see EUROPE 11787).
At the last trialogue, the Parliament tabled a compromise proposal, a European source told us. The Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU reportedly stated that it was not in a position to accept the compromise unless this had been agreed in advance with the member states.
Scicluna calls for a “constructive spirit” in the continued negotiations, particularly on the matter of the hierarchy of risk calculation methods used to assess the minimum capital requirements for securitisation exposures. Readers may recall that this is the major sticking point in the talks (see EUROPE 11790).
The other issues still outstanding are the risk retention threshold and the question of equivalence for third countries (see EUROPE 11787). According to a European source, these issues are expected to be resolved without too much difficulty, once an agreement on the hierarchy of calculation methods has been reached.
The European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis, called upon the co-legislators to adopt a “spirit of cooperation” to “unlock this channel of financing for the economy”. He expressed his hopes that a political agreement will be reached at the next trilogue, on 30 May, ahead of the mid-term revision of the Commission's Capital Markets Union project. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)