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7th Annual European Financial Services Conference

On 27th January 2009, Assonime, Kreab Gavin Anderson and Bank of America Merrill Lynch hosted the European Financial Services Conference, for the seventh consecutive year. The conference took place at the ING Auditorium in Central Brussels. 

More than 450 senior decision-makers were present and were warned to expect more regulation by Charlie McCreevy, the Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services, who said that European supervisory regimes were not fit for purpose and lacked teeth.

He added that industry responses to a request for proposals on mitigating the risks of credit default swaps had been inadequate “so I am keeping open the option of legislating”.

Commissioners Charlie McCreevy & Joaquin Almunia speaking at the 7th Annual European Financial Services Conference in 2009.

 
“No more can we tolerate the ‘laissez faire’ approach to regulation that has characterised the financial sector over the last 20 years,” warned his colleague Joaquin Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Policy. Banks would have to be more transparent on the extent of their toxic assets if they wanted any more of taxpayers’ money – and they would have to start lending again because “the reported constraints on the supply side of credit are considered to go beyond those justified by the cyclical downturn in the economy”.

The key challenge was to restore confidence in the markets and this required a more balanced approach to stakeholders so that the shareholder was no longer king, sad Diederik van Wassenaer, CEO for the Netherlands of ING.

The financial system should be “a good servant of the real economy, not its bad master,” said MEP Ieke van den Burg.

 

 

With limited places available, register for the 2010 European Financial Services Conference now!