Brussels, 01/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 1 March, the Commission published a progress report setting out the work covered in 2006 on the integration of financial services. “The last year has seen a step-change in our work in financial services,” said European Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy in a press release. He spoke in particular of having embedded the “better regulation” strategy in this policy: consultations were systematically carried out with stakeholders as a whole and impact studies assessed in detail the consequences of proposed action. For 2007, the Commission will follow a regulatory approach targeted on the financial activities where it considers there is still not enough European integration. A white paper on mortgages and draft directive “Solvency II in the insurance sector are to be expected (see EUROPE 9219).
Among the main legislative initiatives, the Commission mentions the formal adoption on first reading of the directive on capital adequacy in investment and credit companies, better known as “Bale II” (see EUROPE 9207). At the start of 2007, it published the results of a sectoral investigation on retail banking services (see EUOPE 9356). In the area of representative capital goods, execution measures of directive 2004/39/EC on the financial instruments markets were adopted (see EUROPE 9219). The industry-led drawing up of the code of conduct on clearing and settlement was, the Commission says, a good example of “better regulation” (see EUROPE 9301). In its white paper on improving the single market in investment funds, the Commission plans to adapt directive 85/611/EEC on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) to the rapid change in financial markets (see EUROPE 9308). On company law, work has begun on a directive to facilitate the cross-border transfer of the registered office of companies with share capital ahead of a legislative proposal in 2007 (see EUROPE 9230). Following the adoption of the third directive on money laundering in 2005, the Commission adopted specific execution measures (see EUROPE 9241). In the area of auditing, it extended the period for accepting the accounting standards used by third country companies quoted on European financial markets until 2009 (see EUROPE 9322).
On the international level, the Commission continued its regulatory dialogue with the United States. This dialogue dealt notably with convergence of accounting standards on either side of the Atlantic and the process for deregistration of foreign companies applicable on US stock markets (see EUROPE 9366). The regulatory dialogue has picked up speed with the Chinese and Japanese authorities and has begun with Russia and China. (mb)