Luxembourg, 17/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - As previously announced (EUROPE 8946), finance ministers from the EU Member States gave their approval on Saturday in Luxembourg to a “memorandum of understanding” to improve financial crisis management in the EU. The goal is to organise “trusting” cooperation between banking supervisory bodies, central banks and EU finance ministers when crises affect the financial services (lending institutions, banking groups, payment systems etc) and which have “cross border implications”, explained the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) Jean-Claude Trichet.
Mr Trichet said that information exchange that was as comprehensive as possible was needed so that responses to financial crises could be found as effectively as possible. Trichet pointed out that the Memorandum of Understanding did not modify national or institutional responsibilities. The ECB president pointed out that this document followed another memorandum of understanding signed in 2003 between the banking supervisory bodies and central banks and already contained very close cooperation between the two kinds of institution. This new document does not replace that of 2003 but “completes it with the organisation of relations with finance ministers”, explained Mr Trichet.