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10 November 2010

ECON committee: First exchange of views on short selling and CDS


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Rapporteur Pascal Canfin (FR/Greens) highlighted that he wants to follow a tight timetable, arguing that the regulation needs to be implemented quickly. He openly advocated a ban on “naked short selling” as well as on “uncovered” CDS and “uncovered” sovereign CDS.


Canfin argued that short selling per se is not a problem, but naked short selling is pure speculation and has no added value for the real economy.
 
Concerning ESMA, he agrees with the balanced approach proposed by the EC. He thinks that it is positive that ESMA will be supervising the EU market and at the same time if a Member State is more ambitious than the EC regulation, the Member State could apply its national rules. He announced that his draft report will be presented around 22 November.
 
Shadow rapporteur Markus Ferber (DE, EPP) called on his colleagues to find out if the economy really needs short selling and CDS. He also stressed that the EP needs to agree on a strong position in order to avoid being cut out by the position of the Council.
 
Shadow rapporteur Robert Goebbels (LU, S&D) supported Pascal Canfin’s position. He added that the financial crisis has shown that short selling and CDS can have disastrous effects in the economy.  He emphasized that the financial services industry is overrepresented in the debate and that Barnier is creating a group of consumer representatives to counterbalance the industry lobby.
 
More industry-friendly shadow rapporteur Olle Shmidt (SE, ALDE) warned that short selling should not be banned because it could harm the economy. He encouraged other MEPs to provide some valid proof that short selling and CDS is bad for the economy before considering banning it.
 
Finally, shadow rapporteur Syed Kamal (UK, ECR) disagreed with Canfin and said that before banning any product there is a need to know if the market needs the product or not. He also stressed that if short-selling is not properly defined in the regulation it could have unintended consequences for the real economy.  
 
 
 



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