Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook: Technology, Finance, Environmental, and International Guidance and Best Practices

CHAPTER 45

EUROPEAN UNION—REGIONAL GUIDANCE

Michael Mainelli

45.1 INTRODUCTION

45.2 THE ROLE OF THE SINGLE MARKET

45.3 DIVIDE AND CONFLICT—RETAIL AND WHOLESALE

45.4 LONDON VERSUS BRUSSELS

45.5 THE VESTED INTERESTS

45.6 INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY COMPETITION

45.7 ONE WORD—REGULATION, REGULATION, REGULATION

45.8 THE FUTURE OF REGULATION

45.9 A NEW APPROACH

NOTES

REFERENCES

45.1 INTRODUCTION

A survey of compliance for the 27 European Union (EU) countries and two candidate countries, Turkey and Croatia (as of January 2007), must, of necessity, be shallow. The EU financial services industry is undergoing great changes, and the regulatory and compliance implications are equally great.

The EU has a 20 percent to 40 percent global market share of various financial services. Working from data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Federation of Exchanges, the Bank for International Settlements, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, and company reports of the top 100 global reinsurers, the EU estimated the global market shares in commercial bank assets, debt securities, stock market capitalization, investment fund net assets, life and nonlife premiums and nonlife net written premiums in reinsurance for the EU in 2004. (See Exhibit 45.1.)

Estimates of something as fungible as financial services must be treated cautiously but, overall, the EU financial services industry is comparable to that of the United States. The EU has a larger share of the global banking market ...