About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

3 J. Int'l Banking Reg. 7 (2001-2002)

handle is hein.journals/jlbkrg3 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial Beyond the Lamfalussy Report Since the launch of the Euro in January 1999, it has become increasingly apparent that Europe lacks the integrated financial markets needed to exploit the full potential of European Monetary Union. Progress towards a single market in financial services is hindered by the existence of 15 different national systems of financial legislation and regulation, and by slow and rigid European Community procedures. Though the prin- ciples of home-country control, mutual recognition and minimum harmonisation have proven successful in advancing the European Community's goal of creating a single market in financial services, they are not without limitations. These limitations have become apparent in the process of integrating securities markets in Europe. The Lamfalussy Report (ie the Final Report of the Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of European Securities Markets, which was published on 15th February, 2001 and adopted by the Eur- opean Council in Stockholm of 23-24 March) focuses on the question of 'how' to speed up reform, that is on the processes and legal procedures needed to reform securities markets regulation, rather than on the question of 'what' needs to be reformed. In a shorter-term perspective, it is no doubt rational for the European institutions and governments to focus on these proce- dures. The need for speeding up the legisla- tive process is rather obvious as capital markets change fast and, on past experi- ence, the adoption of directives in the field of financial regulation takes 2-3 years, fol- lowed by a 1-2 year period for national transposition. By definition directives are always running behind events in the mar- kets. The major novelty of the Report is a proposed four-level regulatory approach, whose aim is to speed up the legislative process for the regulation of securities mar- kets. Of these four levels, the main innova- tion is the distinction between 'core principles' in Level 1 and 'technical imple- menting matters' in Level 2, which mirrors at the EU level what happens at the national level, with the distinction between primary legislation and secondary regula- tion. According to Baron Lamfalussy, the Report brings about a 'governance change,' a bottom-up (rather than top- down) approach, which could also be applied to other areas of European integra- tion. In a longer-term perspective the two major issues at stake are, in my opinion, the creation of a single securities European regulator and the adoption of basic stan- dards of securities regulation (or a basic code of European securities regulation). The Report stops short of proposing the former (though leaves the door open through a fall-back remark) and calls for the reform of the Investment Services Directive (ISD) and the prompt adoption of other measures included in the Commis- sion's Financial Services Action Plan. There are two contrasting views on financial supervision in Europe. The first, supported, in particular, by the UK, thinks that greater cooperation between national regulators, and increased harmonisation through competitive pressures and self-reg-

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most