The Executive Directors of the Financial Market Authority, Helmut Ettl and Kurt Pribil, welcome the initiative of Federal Minister of Finance Josef Pröll to invest the FMA with additional powers. “As a result of synergy effects with the FMA’s operational supervisory activities, the role as ‘enforcement office for accounting standards’, commonly referred to as ‘balance-sheet police’, would additionally enhance the FMA’s efficiency and effectiveness,” Ettl and Pribil noted. By utilising the FMA’s infrastructure and expertise, it would furthermore be the most cost-effective solution for Austria as an economic centre, they added. The Federal Minister of Finance also announced plans to extend the investigative powers of the FMA and to toughen the sanctions able to be imposed by the authority, which would, the FMA Executive Directors observed, “result in a marked improvement in our options for enforcing laws”. They noted that the right to search premises and to confiscate materials were important instruments in this context. The FMA Executive Board went on to pledge their full support for Finance Minister Josef Pröll in his efforts to achieve a “strong European financial market supervisory authority”. “We need a European System of Financial Market Authorities that is modelled on the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), and which goes further than the EU Commission proposal based on the de Larosière model.” The Directors voiced the need for a strong, centralised and integrated supervisory institution, instated as an authority with far-reaching powers to intervene in the affairs of financial institutions with cross-border activities. This authority would nonetheless need to rely on a network of national supervisors with market proximity. “In any case, we are prepared to make our contribution towards the announced ‘comprehensive supervision and confidence package for the Austrian financial centre'”, Ettl and Pribil stated in summary.
For further information please contact
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0676)/882 49 516