Spanish Socialist Jonás Fernández, rapporteur on a proposal for a targeted revision of the ‘BRRD’ directive governing bank resolution in the European Union, reacted strongly on Thursday 13 January to accusations by German Christian Democrat Markus Ferber that he was defending the Spanish cause instead of seeking “a European solution”.
The highly technical legislative proposal on the table, presented at the same time as the legislative package finalising the integration of the ‘Basel III’ agreement into the EU (see EUROPE 12821/2), deals in particular with the issue of systemic banking groups that have opted for a ‘multiple point of entry’ resolution strategy, notably Spanish groups that have developed activities in Latin America.
The text is intended to be fast-tracked, as the EU Council adopted its negotiating position at the end of December (see EUROPE 12859/7).
The ‘multiple point of entry’ model is certainly more costly from a prudential point of view for banks, but it better guarantees financial stability by preventing the import of financial risks from third countries into the EU, said Fernández.
At the end of the debate, Mr Ferber accused him of wanting to introduce “a specific regime” that was not initially retained by the European Commission and while Spain is isolated on this issue in the EU Council. “We do not accept specific rules for one Member State”, he insisted, noting that Spain was one of the euro area countries that received a bailout because of the crisis in its banking sector.
Describing these comments as “provocations”, Jonás Fernández said that in Spain, no bank that had opted for the ‘multiple point of entry’ model had caused any problems “in recent decades”. “This should be food for thought for my colleague Markus”, he said. “In my report, there are no national exceptions at all. The only thing I want is for European regulation to ensure a level playing field between different models of banking governance”, he added.
The rapporteur noted that in Germany, some banks that had opted for the ‘single point of entry’ strategy had experienced “notorious, severe” problems. “And I won’t name the entities we all have in mind”, he insisted, hoping that the political groups would be able to find a quick agreement, “if we work towards the best interests of Europe”.
See the draft ‘Fernández’ report: https://bit.ly/3nm1iXu (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)