European capital markets – Meetings with national authorities

As part of promoting AMAFI's report presenting the association’s recommendations aimed at encouraging deep, liquid and competitive European capital markets, Chairman Stéphane Giordano, Arnaud Eard, Director of European and International Affairs, and members of the European Action Committee met with the representatives of several authorities, including Martina Tambucci, Head of the International Relations Office at Consob (Italy), Ines Drumond, CNVM Vice-Chair (Portugal), and Rodrigo Buenaventura, CNMV Chair (Spain).

Discussions focused on securitisation, equity investment to finance EU companies, ESMA’s ability to issue no-action letters to provide the requisite flexibility to an overly rigid regulatory framework, as well as the competitive disadvantages arising from the extra-territoriality of European law on investor protection.

• On reviving the European securitisation market, although the talking partners understood the need for reforms to the prudential framework to alleviate the constraints on bank balance sheets and so increase the ability of banks to finance the European economy, they did not seem to view this as a priority area for reform.
• Conversely, promoting retail equity investment over the long term was seen as a central goal – and one whose achievement will depend heavily on tax incentives.
• Meanwhile, the authorities that AMAFI met with were divided on the question of no-action letters.
• Consob and CNVM representatives said that they supported AMAFI’s proposal that EU investor protection rules should not apply to EU participants doing business in a third country for non-EU clients.