The Future Of Financial Regulation And Supervision In Europe

The EU financial regulatory and supervisory scheme has recently been substantially changed. Several new directives both in securities and banking - followed soon by insurance - will overhaul regulation in the EU. At the same time work is being done in the regulatory and supervisory architecture. By using delegated rulemaking, much of the needed centralisation has been achieved. Supervisory coordination now becomes the focus of the debate: at present coordination has been based on cooperation networks, framed around the regulatory and advisory committees. How far can this approach be upheld, or should Europe be heading for a single supervisor, possibly integrating the three mentioned fields of business activity? What alternative schemes could be devised, relying on the existing home-host pattern, the development of new techniques of cooperation and enforcement or - as some think - majority decision making? Subsidiarity, proximity and efficiency reasons point toward a further deepening of the network approach that better meets the needs of the market participants.