The chairmen of the leading French banks, who make up the Executive Committee of the French Banking Federation (FBF), presented Romano Prodi, European Commission chairman, with a paper entitled: 'Five Principles for a Unified European Banking and Financial Market'.
French banking and financial institutions are determined to continue to play a leading role in developing a single market for financial services based on an ambitious European social and economic model that is founded on the principles of equal market access, harmonisation, consensus building and accountability.
The five principles are:
An ambition:
Europe must develop its own model from its own values. These values are based in particular on achieving a sustainable balance between bank customers, employees and shareholders and not on short-term considerations that would vary with economic ups and downs, as would be the case with accounting standard IAS 39, for example.
Equality:
Europe must ensure transparency and equal market access for everyone. This is one of the main demands of French bankers and their Italian and to a lesser extent German counterparts concerning the Draft Directive on Investment Services (ISD).
Harmonisation:
Europe must be harmonised, not standardised. Where common rules are needed, they must be the same for everyone. This is essential to fair competition and to dealing effectively with cross-border issues, such as money laundering and terrorism.
Consensus-building:
In order to ensure that regulations are relevant and applicable, Europe must consult with the private sector before taking any decisions. This is why French bankers support the extension of the Lamfalussy process to regulation of the banking sector, provided that some inadequacies revealed by recent experience are corrected.
Accountability:
The political sphere, i.e. the European Commission, Council and Parliament, must play an active role in building Europe's banking and financial sector. Developing a standard is a political action that cannot simply be delegated to technicians without some control.
FBF Paper
© FBF - French Banking Federation
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