Behind this broad orientation lies the shared notion that the main efforts to remove residual legal and regulatory obstacles to the free provision of financial services in the EU have been achieved with the FSAP. Therefore the adoption of new Community legislative initiatives should be evidence-based. The role of public intervention in regulating the EU financial sector remains important.
But as I said just now, rules can only work together with supervision. How effective global rules are also depends on how supervisors apply them. Supervisors must faithfully apply the rules which transpose the Basel standards. To do so, they need adequate resources and they must be shielded from political interference. And there’s more.