Noticias

Publicado por Agence Europe (26 febrero 2010).

(EU) EP/FINANCIAL SERVICES: Christian Noyer opposes idea of an EU list of too-big-to-fails

At a public hearing on Thursday 25 February on financial supervision, organised by the European Parliament's special committee on the financial crisis, the governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer, opposed the idea of an EU list of “too-big-to-fail” financial institutions. He said that everyone wanted to reduce or remove moral risk but he had huge doubts about the drawing up of a list of too-big-to-fails as it could be counter-productive and increase moral risk by providing such institutions with a type of insurance policy. Too-big-to-fails are not necessarily the biggest institutions. Noyer said that the economic crisis had shown that many institutions that had to be bailed out would not have been on such a list.
In his draft report on the European supervision authority (ESA) that is soon to be set up for banking, José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil (EPP, Spain) suggested that the banking ESA should have the power to supervise too-big-to-fail banks operating in more than one EU country, identified using criteria laid down by FSB and BRI (international organisations).

Noyer called for greater protection of savings in financial crises. At EU level, he called for “harmonisation” of the size of national savings guarantee funds and how they operate, in order to move towards a genuine EU savings guarantee system. Setting up an EU savings guarantee fund might be one option, as long as the banks provide the funding before any crisis occurs. Noyer gave the example of the French system that authorises the French authorities with power over the use of state funding to take decisions like sacking the managers and giving other institutions power over a failing bank. He said it would be appropriate for countries to levy a tax on banking to cover bailout costs.

In response to a question from Olle Schmidt (ALDE, Sweden) about whether the EU was running the risk of intervening too much, introducing too much legislation and going too far in its supervision of the banking system, Noyer agreed that it was necessary to strike the appropriate balance between essential measures and how they will impact on banks' ability to finance the real economy. He said that banks must not be allowed to wriggle out of new rules on the quality of capital, liquidity risk and “dynamic provisioning” but it was important not to kill off banks in attempts to “heal” them. Noyer, who used to be deputy ECB president, said the macroeconomic testing of recommended measures (tests that the Basel Committee will be carrying out later this year) will help calibrate the requirements to be levied on banks, but EU own funds rules for banks will not be applied until the Basel II rules, that are already in place in the EU, are applied by other parts of the world, like the United States. He made similar points about the well-needed reform of the EU financial supervision system, commenting that having inspection teams in a single location does not, in and of itself, ensure a better system (referring to the idea of ESA rapporteurs that the European Economic Risk Management Committee and the three ESAs (for banking, securities and insurance) should be located in the same city, namely Frankfurt in Germany). Noyer argued that the system recommended in the de Larosiere Report would be more effective in the Europe of today, namely keeping national supervisors and adding them to a federal system to encourage harmonisation of doctrine and legislation across Europe.

Noticias

Publicado en ABC y diariosur.es

La Eurocámara pide más poderes para los organismos de supervisión financiera

Todos los intervinientes en la comisión parlamentaria de Asuntos Económicos y Monetarios, que hoy debatieron el asunto en Bruselas, coincidieron en esta visión que tratarán de hacer prevalecer, gracias al mayor poder que ostenta el Parlamento Europeo desde el pasado 1 de diciembre, cuando entró en vigor el Tratado de Lisboa.

"La Comisión Europea (CE) reaccionó a la crisis con un informe de Jacques de La Rosière que él mismo definió como de mínimos. La propuesta de la CE debilitó el informe y los gobiernos lo han aguado aún más", consideró el eurodiputado español José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, que fue uno de los ponentes de la sesión.

"Vamos a dar la batalla y vamos a intentar convencer al Consejo, en un momento en que la presidencia de turno la ocupa un Gobierno (el español) que ha pedido más coordinación económica. Vamos a conseguir su apoyo", añadió el parlamentario, miembro del Partido Popular Europeo.

Los distintos grupos de la Cámara ya anunciaron en diciembre pasado que ésa iba a ser su línea de actuación, después de que los gobiernos apostaran por reservarse la última palabra sobre las decisiones en las que no hubiera acuerdo y que implicaran "consecuencias presupuestarias para los estados miembros" (por ejemplo, la financiación del rescate de un banco).

Tras aquella reunión, el presidente de la Comisión Europea, José Manuel Durao Barroso, ya instó al Parlamento Europeo (PE) a ejercer su nuevo papel de "codecisión" junto a los Gobiernos, para volver a reforzar el papel de estas instituciones.

La nueva arquitectura de supervisión consistirá en una Junta o Consejo Europeo de Riesgo Sistémico, encargada de vigilar el riesgo en el sistema en general; así como tres entidades paneuropeas para los sectores bancario, de seguros y bolsa.

García-Margallo pidió hoy evitar "una mera yuxtaposición inconexa de autoridades" y apostó por una mayor coordinación e intercambio de información entre los distintos organismos que, a su juicio, deberían concentrarse en una sola ciudad.

Los diputados también pidieron que se reserve a la Junta de Riesgo Sistémico la capacidad de dar la señal de alarma en una situación de emergencia (frente a la opción de que este papel se reserve a la Comisión o el Consejo); y que las autoridades sectoriales tengan capacidad de moderar cuando haya un conflicto entre distintos organismos nacionales.

El eurodiputado español también apostó porque "sean los bancos y no los contribuyentes" los que hagan frente a los costes de la crisis, para lo que apostó por la creación de un fondo de garantía que tenga capacidad para emitir deuda.

Otro de los ponentes, el eurodiputado español Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, coincidió con la eurodiputada Sylvie Goulard en rescatar la propuesta del informe La Rosière que reservaba el papel de presidente de la Junta de Riesgo Sistémico para el presidente del Banco Central Europeo, una idea que desapareció en la propuesta de la Comisión. EFE

Noticias

Publicado en el Wall Street Journal.

EU Lawmakers Push For Stronger Financial-Market Oversight


BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--Members of the European Parliament are pushing to give two new regulators expanded powers to govern the European Union's largest banks and securities firms, potentially upsetting a compromise that EU states reached last fall.

Two lawmakers, charged with evaluating an EU plan for new banking and securities overseers, argued in separate reports circulated Tuesday that firms operating across EU borders should be monitored by the new pan-EU regulators instead of national authorities.

The EU parliamentarians also want to establish emergency funds for these sectors to help cope with future financial crises. Both moves likely will upset the UK, which has fought to limit the powers of these new regulatory bodies and ensure its taxpayers wouldn't have to bail outs large EU firms.

EU finance ministers last year wrestled over a deal to create new supervisory groups for financial markets: a "macro-prudential" body to study big-picture risks to financial stability, and three "micro-prudential" groups to look at specific issues in the banking, securities, and insurance and pension sectors.

This plan was designed in the wake of the 2008 crisis, which officials blamed on weak financial-market rules and lax oversight. But initial efforts to create a more centralized EU regulatory framework faced stiff resistance from the UK, which feared losing sway over the City of London, Europe's largest financial center.

Ultimately, EU finance ministers circumscribed the new regulatory groups' powers, agreeing that national authorities will continue to monitor firms' day-to-day business. The ministers, at the UK's insistence, also added a stipulation ensuring that the new EU regulators won't be able to dictate national spending priorities or force taxpayers to fund bailouts for banks operating across the bloc's borders.

But EU legislation needs approval from the European Parliament, a body of 736 lawmakers from across the 27-state bloc. Members of the parliament since December have complained that the EU's regulatory plan lacked clout.

"Financial institutions with an EU dimension should be entrusted to the European Supervisory Authority (Banking)," Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, said in his report on the planned banking supervisor. "National supervisors should act as agents of the European Supervisory Authority (Banking) and should be bound to the authority's instructions when they supervise cross-border financial institutions with an EU dimension."

The lawmakers' reports mark the start of debate within the Parliament about the legislative plan. Lawmakers can make further changes to the proposal, but EU governments ultimately will have to agree to it, creating the prospect of lengthy negotiations in the coming months.

The UK lawmaker who assessed the proposal for the EU insurance and pension regulator didn't make similar recommendations for those sectors.