Brussels, 04/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - Last week's presentation of its third report on the supervision of financial activities by the European Financial Services Round Table (EFR) decided that the implementation of the lead supervisor concept would constitute an “important step to a more efficient and effective prudential supervisory structure”.
The concept would prevent the multiplication of reports by financial establishments based in several Member States which they have to provide to different national supervisory bodies - a situation considered repetitive and costly. A single supervisor would be designated from the different national authorities and would become the single contact point of the financial institution for the whole group for all solvency and liquidity subjects. This “lead supervisor” would carry out regular reporting to the college of supervisors made up from its counterparts.
The EFR also considers that European supervisor committees from level 3 of the Lamfalussy procedural hierarchy have contributed to a more consistent implementation of European legislation through the Union. EFR believes that these three committees - the European Committee of Banking Supervisors (CEBS, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) “should work towards full convergence, establish best practices, and remove hurdles for market integration”. The Lamfalussy procedure aims to speed up adaptation of financial services legislation. It includes four levels sharing out the decision-making responsibilities dependent on the legislation currently being adopted.