Brussels, 12/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - In an article published in Thursday's Financial Times, Charlie McCreevy, revealed some of the problems resulting from implementing European legislation in the retail banking sector. The European Commissioner for the internal market considers that, “I believe it should be possible to lay down conditions whereby a form of mutual recognition of bank shareholders could operate between competent authorities”. He quoted the example of the take over bid by the Dutch ABM Amro bank for the Italian Antonveneta bank, “it seems absurd to me if the competent authorities of one Member State accept a company which is a viable bank in their territory, the competent authorities in other Member States undertake a separate evaluation of the suitability of a well-established and supervised ban.
The requests for information from the Bank of Italy to ABN Ambro led to a “precious loss of time” according to the Commissioner. The Banca Populare di Lodi, which tried to prevent the take over by the Dutch bank, was not subject to such investigations. McCreevy said that, “these delays could give a domestic bidder a clear advantage. This was never the intention of European legislation”. The Commission will present is analysis in the context of the revision of the 2000/12/EC directive at the Ecofin Council of Manchester next September (EUROPE 8892).