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Financial Services in the European Union

The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP), adopted by the European Commission in May 1999, is a package of policy objectives and specific measures designed to improve the single market for financial services. It focuses on three strategic objectives: a single market for wholesale financial services; open and secure retail markets; state-of-the-art prudential rules and supervision. Documents and publications relevant to financial services in the European union can be found below.

7 November 2007
PDF file of Strengthening the EU regulatory and supervisory framework: a practical approach (410KB)
The EU's regulatory and supervisory framework - the so-called Lamfalussy arangements - are being reviewed at the end of the year. Overall the UK authorities believe the Lamfalussy arrangements are structurally sound, and have made a major contribution to the regulation and supervision of financial markets in the EU. Nevertheless, the UK authorities propose a number of practical and ambitious proposals that they believe will deliver further tangible benefits in terms of the efficiency of the regulatory and supervisory process facing firms and the effectiveness in the way the Lamfalussy committees conduct their day-to-day business. Together they represent a positive, constructive and ambitious agenda for further developing the EU's regulatory and supervisory framework.

January 2005
PDF file of Supervising financial services in an integrated European Single Market: A discussion paper (382KB)
As Europe’s financial markets become more integrated, so the question of how to supervise these markets becomes more complex. There is no single or simple way to achieve supervisory convergence: the issues are complex and the solutions are multiple and multi-faceted. This paper sketches out five related challenges that need to be addressed to make progress on achieving convergence of supervisory practice, and offers some proposals for how this can be achieved. Such proposals do not require new EU legislation but rather focus on practical solutions to this complex issue. Taken together, these challenges and proposals present an ambitious framework for action.

Dossiers

Links to all web-pages on forthcoming Commission proposals, legislation under negotiation and legislation in the process of being implemented.

Forthcoming dossiers:
Legislation currently under preparation by the European Commission:

Deposit Guarantee Schemes
Basel Capital adequacy rules for financial institutions
Solvency II
Cross-Border Payments
Reinsurance

Dossiers currently under negotiation:
Co-decision process ongoing

Completed dossiers:
Legislation adopted, either fully implemented or being implemented in the UK

Conglomerates
Market Abuse Directive
Distance Marketing Directive
Insurance Mediation Directive
UCITS Directive
Pensions Directive
Prospectus Directive
Collateral Directive
Transparency Directive
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive

Related links

Some of the above documents are available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.

Contact

For any details on process and developments, please use contact details below:
Email: Aviva Rosen or Karen Ainsworth at European Union Financial Services

Phone: 0207 270 5510

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