On Monday 8 October, the chairs of the three European financial supervisory authorities (ESA) – ESMA, the EBA and EIOPA – which supervise the financial markets and the banking and insurance sectors respectively, were the guests of honour of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament.
Although some MEPs were keen to discover how these three authorities see their own role in relation to sustainable finance or financial technology, it was mainly their competences in fighting money laundering that caught their attention, in light of the European Commission's new proposal to reinforce the EBA's powers in this area (see EUROPE 12094).
Concentrating powers within the EBA seems to have the approval of the other two authorities. "What we experienced in the past years is that EBA has built up the biggest expertise and it would avoid fragmentation of the resources", said Steven Maijoor, chairman of ESMA.
When asked by MEP Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany) about the case of the Maltese bank Pilatus (see EUROPE 12053), EBA chair Andrea Enria said that the follow-up to the Maltese investigation was currently underway.
As regards the other scandals, he said that the EBA was currently conducting preliminary investigations into breaches of EU law regarding the Latvian bank ABLV and the Danish bank Danske Bank.
The EBA has also launched a control to assess the effectiveness of national supervision concerning money laundering in all member states. "I think we have actually achieved quite a lot in this area, so I'm quite proud of what we did", he concluded.
Wolf Klinz (ALDE, Germany) expressed misgivings at concentrating powers within the EBA and made no secret of his preference for an autonomous anti-money-laundering authority (see EUROPE 12091).
Enria took pains to alleviate these concerns, stressing that the EBA's role would not be limited to the banking sector alone. "[The aim] would be to make under the EBA umbrella a hub that would cover anti-money laundering across financial sectors", he explained.
When questioned by Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) on the resources that would be allocated within ESMA and EIOPA to fight financial crime, the two chairs acknowledged that these budgets were extremely low at the moment.
"We have been focusing on the more supervisory convergence agenda", explained Gabriel Bernardino of EIOPA.
On the revision of the financing and governance of the three ESAs (see EUROPE 11864), Maijoor expressed some disappointment.
"While I understand that these legislative proposals are ambitious, the opposition from some is unexpectedly strong. I personally see it as a contradiction to support strongly the Capital Markets Union objectives on the one hand and on the other hand, oppose the proposals including some of its key elements like the proposed enhancements of the supervisory convergence tools, and moving some targeted direct supervisory powers over entities", he said.
Brexit. The three ESAs are moreover still at work preparing the European markets for the forthcoming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, even in the event of 'no deal'.
ESMA is assessing applications from British companies to transfer to the EU27. According to our information, most of these involved France, Germany, Luxembourg and Ireland.
Last week, the chairman of the authority made the case for continued EU access to British central clearing counterparties (CCP) – comments that were fairly controversial and which he did not repeat during the hearing.
Enria told the MEPs how much pressure the EBA, which is shortly to leave London, is under.
"Only if an agreement between the co-legislators is found in October will we be able to ensure a move to Paris at the end of April 2019. Needless to say that this uncertainty is projecting heavily on our staff", he said. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)