EUROPE - The director general of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has called for the creation of a consultative panel for asset management matters, as part of a pan-European supervisory body recently agreed by the European Parliament.

The European Parliament yesterday voted in favour of reforms to the way the single financial market is overseen, signing off on the creation of three pan-European supervisory bodies.
 
The organisations, which will begin work on 1 January, are the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Each will have its headquarters in a different European city, with EIOPA based in Frankfurt, the EBA in London and ESMA working from its new headquarters in Paris.

They will be joined by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), also based in the German financial hub of Frankfurt, which is tasked with detecting macroeconomic threats.

Peter De Proft, director general at EFAMA, welcomed the move toward a European oversight body for funds, arguing investors in UCITS funds would benefit from a more harmonised approach as overseen by ESMA.

"We look forward to establishing as constructive a relationship with ESMA as we have established with the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR)."

However, De Proft called on ESMA to engage with the asset management industry as CESR had already done, suggesting a dedicated panel for matters pertaining to funds and asset management would be the best way of achieving this goal.

"We encourage ESMA to build on CESR's good practices of open and transparent consultation of stakeholders and would welcome the creation of a consultative panel specifically dedicated to asset management related matters," he said.
 

Topics