Next week, the Commission is to present a proposed revision of the structure and competences of the European financial supervisory authorities (ESAs), the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis, announced at the Eurofi financial forum in Tallinn on Thursday 14 September.
“We will improve the tools they have to promote consistent supervision across the EU and beyond”, the Commissioner said. One of the measures to be expected will be to set out common priorities in terms of supervision by the national supervisors, he hinted. The Commission will additionally propose modifications to make their governance more effective and will propose that these are partly paid for by the industry.
In other areas, the Commission will continue to push forward supervisory convergence and will grant the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) powers to supervise certain establishments directly. ESMA has on several occasions stated that it is prepared to take on new supervisory responsibilities (see EUROPE 11800). According to the Commission, this will help to avoid regulatory arbitration in particular.
On Wednesday, the Commission also announced medium-term plans to propose the creation of a European Capital Markets Supervisor.
Readers may recall that certain institutions, such as the association representing European employers, BusinessEurope, have previously called upon the Commission not to make any changes to the structure and powers of the ESAs (see EUROPE 11791).
At the forum, the Commissioner also raised “some ideas on the way forward” towards completing Banking Union, which are also expected to be presented in the coming weeks. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)