(Reuters) -The European Central Bank (ECB) has set up a working group chaired by its vice -president, Luis de Guindos, which aims to simplify banking regulations in Europe, a source close to the file reports on Saturday, confirming information from the Bloomberg agency.
The governors of the central banks of Germany, France, Italy and Finland are also part of this working group, said the source.
The ECB, the German Bundesbank, the Banque de France, the Bank of Italy and the Bank of Finland did not respond immediately to requests for comments from Reuters.
The ECB does not have the power to modify the rules, the only prerogative of the Parliament in Brussels, a recommendation made by the working group must therefore be subject to MEPs for an examination.
The creation of this working group comes after a letter addressed to the European Commission at the beginning of this year in which the governors of the central banks of Germany, France, Italy and Spain call for a simplification of banking rules in Europe deemed “excessively complex”.
“A complete analysis of the implications of all the standards produced in Europe should be carried out (…) to guarantee that they do not add in a cumulative manner of the involuntary strata of rules and expectations”, write the four governors in their letter addressed to Commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque.
These governors believe that this examination could lead to “a legislative proposal (…) with concrete and realistic simplification measures”.
Claudia Buch, the president of the BCE prudential supervisory board, defended the choice of Europe this week to opt for “complex” rules.
“It is sometimes claimed that banking rules are too complex,” she said at an event in Washington.
“But (…) For the regulations effectively to meet the specific needs and vulnerabilities of the sector, it must be sufficiently detailed,” she said.
Fabio Panetta, member of the BCE Council of Governors, said in February that Europe should avoid excessive regulations and that it could consider simplifying current rules.
(Written by Rishabh Jaiswal and Francesco Canepa; Claude Chendjou)
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