The EU may need new rules next year to improve supervision of big financial groups operating across borders if member states fail to streamline regulations, a top ECB official said today.
"Efforts are ongoing, but results are not yet sufficient," Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, an ECB executive board member, said in a speech on financial integration.
Political leadership is lacking and national interests too often block progress in harmonising financial regulations in the European Union, she said.
Cross-border banking and financial groups would like to report to one main supervisor to save large sums of money in compliance costs.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, the bloc's top financial market regulator, has said a radically streamlined system of supervision was a non-starter and advocated an evolutionary approach.
Smaller member states fear being left out of the regulatory loop as a major overhaul of supervision would likely benefit London, Paris and Frankfurt where many of the international financial groups are headquartered.
