Brussels, 20/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - Preparing a draft directive on the prudential supervision of financial conglomerates, scheduled for the spring, the European Commission has launched a consultation process aimed at gathering the points of views of companies and other interested parties. Financial conglomerates (entities offering a range of financial services in fields as varied as banking, insurance and securities) have developed rapidly over the past few years. Yet, "the acceleration of structural rapprochement between financial establishments of all sectors and all countries raises new questions that call for new rules", the European Commission explains: "in particular, future legislation will have to guarantee greater legal security for bot regulatory and supervisory authorities and operators, by eliminating the discordance between the financial directives in force, based on a sectoral vision".
This directive is one of the ten priority measures currently being undertaken by the Commission with the aim of creating a genuinely integrated market for financial services, in compliance with the action plan for financial services. In its consultation document, the European Commission sets out its point of view on the essential elements of the future legislation and invites parties interested to submit their observations by 10 February (the document may be consulted on the Europa site, at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market)