No sign of single EU banking regulator

BRUSSELS – The European Commission (EC) will not push to create a single EU banking regulator over the next five years, according to a green paper on financial services policy issued in mid-May. Other EU organisations, including the European Central Bank, have hinted strongly that they would like to see all the national regulators consolidate into a single, region-wide body to more effectively promote economic and regulatory integration. This discussion has emerged partly as a result of the implementation of Basel II, which requires closer co-ordination among banking supervisors around the world. But the EC has said in its green paper that it would rather work with existing structures to promote convergence of supervisory practices over time than set up a new pan-European regulatory structure.

"The Commission makes a valid point in calling for the current framework and existing tools to be maximized before new structures are even considered," said José María Roldán, chairman of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), at a conference in Brussels in late May. "From the CEBS perspective, and despite our achievements over the past 16 months, we do not yet feel that we have reached the limits of the possibilities afforded to us by the Lamfalussy structure. We will continue to