The Executive Board of the Austrian Financial Market Authority FMA, Helmut Ettl and Kurt Pribil, welcomed the legislative proposals, set forth today by EU Commissioners Charlie McGreevy and Joaquin Almunia, for a European System of Financial Supervisors, calling the proposals “a step in the right direction”. It is also planned to establish a European Systemic Risk Council (ESRC) as part of the European Central Bank (ECB), with the involvement of national supervisors, for the purpose of developing an early warning system for financial crises. The institution was cited by Ettl and Pribil as being a “major step forward in European supervisory architecture”. They additionally welcomed in principle plans to create a European System of Financial Supervisors (ESFS), which would entail elevating the level 3 committees, currently serving as advisory bodies, to the level of European agencies with enhanced powers as authorities. The level 3 committees, in which the FMA has seats and voting rights, include the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) and the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR). Yet the FMA Executive Board called for “enhanced powers for these European agencies”, specifically with a view to financial groups active on a cross-border basis, as a result of the ensuing discussion process. “Decision-making processes need to be more highly centralised in this case, and these bodies need to have the powers to effectively and efficiently take decisions, with binding effect for the entire EEA, on interpretation of supervisory law,” Ettl and Pribil demanded. “We expect stronger measures in this direction as a result of the international discussion,” they added.
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Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
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