Brussels, 26/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - The presentation of proposals from the “de Larosière” group on reform of the European system for financial supervision gave rise to generally positive reactions from the European Parliament and the banking and insurance industry (see EUROPE 9848). French Socialist Pervenche Berès welcomes the recommendations aimed at: (1) transforming the three European national regulators' committees in the fields of securities (European Committees of European Securities Regulators - CESR), banking (Committee of European Banking Supervisors - CEBS) and insurance (Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors - CEIOPS) into European authorities with power of mediation; and (2) creating a new entity responsible for macro-prudential supervision for the whole financial sphere. These two suggestions have already been made by the EP, Ms Berès points out. The proposals on the macro-economic chapter recognise, in her view, the major role for financial stability played by the European Central Bank at the peak of the crisis through its massive injections of liquidities, she said on Wednesday 25 February in EUROPE. “We should not be shy in our ambition or in our action”, said the chair of the parliamentary committee on economic affairs, calling on the European Commission to present a “comprehensive financial services plan” ensuring full participation of the European Parliament in this process and based on the “Delors” plans of the eighties. More on his guard, British Conservative John Purvis warns: “While a macro-economic early warning and advisory body may have some benefits for staving off future financial crises, it must not use streamlining supervision as a cover for grabbing more power from national regulators”. For greater transparency and caution on the markets, he nonetheless recommends avoiding “overzealous interventionist reactions” that would undermine the competitiveness of EU industry at international level.
The European Banking Federation (EBF) welcomes the approach of the de Larosière group, which “puts colleges of supervisors at the heart of the proposed European System of Financial Supervision together with enhanced and better resourced Level 3 committees”. The proposal to create a European Systemic Risk Council for macro-financial stability oversight is, it says, “close in spirit to the EBF idea of a European Financial Stability Forum”. The European Savings Bank Group (ESBG) is in favour of gradually implementing recommendations and is fully in agreement with the “Group of the Wise”, which recognises the “central role of local supervisors”. Concerning the report's criticism of directors' bonuses and pay, the Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe (AMICE) believes that its members “prove through their way of doing business that mutual and cooperative structures can avoid some of the temptations and risks of short-termism”. After the fashion of the European insurance committee, it welcomes the appeal by experts in favour of urgently adopting (May 2009) the draft “Solvency II” directive based on calculating the economic risk and including a group support regime. (M.B./transl.jl)