On the European front, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) regularly bring new or revised guidelines, recommendations, technical standards and other ancillary regulations that complement the Directives and EU regulations in an ever increasing flow. In the eurozone, umpteen daily meetings in Frankfurt address the questions around setting up the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).
According to OECD estimates, for more than 2,000 publicly traded companies headquartered in 15 countries, the median underfunding rate worsened from about one eighth in 2007 to one fourth in 2009. Since the autumn of 2010 the situation is likely to have improved but only slightly, owing to the low level of interest rates.