The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, on Tuesday 1 September, congratulated the European Banking Authority (EBA) for following its recommendations on the ‘revolving door’ case in the wake of the Farkas situation.
Last May, the Ombudsman concluded that the EBA should not have authorised the transfer of Adam Farkas, its former executive director, to the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), one of the main lobbies of the financial sector (see EUROPE 12484/19).
In its response to the recommendations, the EBA has confirmed that it is now ready to prohibit senior staff from holding certain positions when they leave the EBA and they have indicated that it has adopted a new policy for assessing restrictions and prohibitions imposed on staff who change jobs.
Furthermore, the EBA acknowledged that it has taken “some time” to completely remove Mr Farkas' access to confidential information held on EBA systems, but has given assurances that internal procedures have now been put in place to immediately suspend access to this sensitive information.
Ms O'Reilly also welcomed the European Commission's decision to suspend, until 1 February 2022, meetings between the Commission and Mr Farkas (see EUROPE 12546/19).
For its part, the Foreign Exchange Finance coalition, which had referred the matter to the European Ombudsman, did not seem totally convinced by these new measures.
It certainly welcomed the fact that, for the first time, post-employment criteria had been established. Nevertheless, it did say that shortcomings remain, such as the absence of sanctions for EBA staff in the case of non-compliance with the restrictions. Moreover, the rules are neither automatic nor mandatory, and there is no independent body to enforce them.
See the EBA response: https://bit.ly/3bijx8Z (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)