March 4 (Reuters) - The European Commission outlined plans on Wednesday for a welter of new regulations to make markets less risky for investors.
They range from punishing banks whose pay packages promote excessively risky behaviour to directly supervising hedge funds and private equity companies.
For story, click on [ID:nBRU007317] --------------------------------------------------------------- The measures planned and timetable:
-- the Commission backed recommendations made last week's report from a group headed for former Bank of France Governor Jacques de Larosiere. It suggests creating two new pan-EU supervisory bodies, one hosted by the European Central Bank to monitor system-wide risk, the other to look at day to day operations in banks, insurers and markets. The Commission will come forward with legislative proposals to enact the recommendations
-- bringing forward a new recommendation on remuneration in the financial services sector (April 2009) followed by legislative proposals to include remuneration schemes within the scope of prudential oversight (autumn 2009)
This will take the form of amending relevant sectoral legislation and provide that supervisory authorities may impose capital "sanctions" on financial institutions whose remuneration policy is found to generate unacceptable risk
-- a comprehensive legislative instrument establishing regulatory and supervisory standards for hedge funds, private equity and other systemically important market players (April 2009)
-- legislative proposals to increase the quality and quantity of banks' prudential capital and tackle securitisation (June 2009)
This will reinforce capital requirements for trading book activities. This proposal will be introduced in the context of a revision of the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD).
It will upgrade capital requirements for complex securitisations, both in the banking and the trading book. This proposal will also be introduced in the context of the revision of the CRD to be proposed by June 2009
It will mitigate any excessive pro-cyclicality of existing capital requirements through measures including the possibility of building up additional reserves in good times
-- more legislative proposals to address liquidity risk and excessive leverage (autumn 2009)
-- a report on "excessive" pro-cyclicality in the CRD will be presented by the end of 2009
-- initiate a rolling programme of actions to introduce a far more consistent set of supervisory rules
-- initiatives to make sure that the credit default swaps industry uses central counterparty clearing for such products
-- legislation to simplify and harmonise the national laws regarding securities holding and transaction in the EU by the end of 2009. Particular attention will be paid to money market funds and the lessons from the alleged Madoff fraud
-- proposals by mid-2009 with proposals to ensure that the full benefits of a Single Euro Payments Area are realised
-- on the basis of a European Commission report on the use of derivatives and other complex structured products due in June, there will be appropriate initiatives to increase transparency
-- a White Paper on tools for early intervention to prevent a crisis (June 2009)
-- further measures to reinforce bank depositor, investor and insurance policy holder protection (autumn 2009)
-- a communication on retail investment products (April 2009)
-- measures on responsible lending and borrowing (autumn 2009)
-- strengthening of the European Commission's 2004 recommendation (guidelines for EU states) on remuneration of directors
-- review the market abuse directive (autumn 2009)
-- report on member states' sanctioning regimes and make proposals on how sanctions could be strengthened and better enforced (autumn 2009) (Reporting by Huw Jones)