EU Parliament adopts
"most comprehensive and most far-reaching banking regulation in European
history" with overwhelming majority
"Today's decision makes European banks more
resilient, so that no more taxpayers' money has to be used to prop them up",
explained Othmar Karas MEP, Vice-President of the European Parliament. The new
set of rules for banks, which was adopted with an overwhelming majority,
comprises more than a thousand pages and is the basis for the planned banking
union. "The new single rule book for all 8200 banks in the EU is the foundation
on which the house of the Banking Union is to be built. The single supervisory
mechanism will be the roof. As walls to the house, we must now feed in the
Resolution framework for banks and the deposit guarantee schemes. The new set of
rules is the most comprehensive and most far-reaching banking regulation in the
history of the EU", he said. Karas was Parliament's negotiator for the law known
as the CRD (Capital Requirements Directive) or Basel III....Part of the new rules is that for the first time,
there will be a cap on bankers' bonuses. Bonuses may not be higher than the
salary. Only in exceptional cases, the shareholders of a bank may decide that
bonuses may amount to a maximum of twice as much as the fixed salary. "The rules
concerning bankers' bonuses do not regulate the amounts of the salaries. As
legislators, we do not regulate salary levels. But we install fairness and
transparency and we contribute to a change in culture", said Karas. The most
important part of the new rules is tightened capital requirements for banks.
From 1 January 2014 onwards, European banks have to put aside more and better
capital to be prepared for possible crises. Unprecedented is the new rule that
banks have to publish, country by country, what their profit is, how much tax
they pay and how much they receive in subsidies. This increases
transparency.
"The new capital requirements are key to an
efficient banking supervision and therefore a crucial condition for the banking
union", said Marianne Thyssen, EPP Group MEP responsible for the negotiations on
the new single European banking supervision. "Today's large majority for the new
banking regulation is a major success for Othmar Karas and an important step on
the road to a safer banking sector. Both the new capital requirements and the
reinforced European banking supervision will help to avoid crises. Prevention is
better than cure", said Thyssen. For the first time, criteria for the liquidity of
bank capital are being introduced. Banks have to be able to fulfill their
liabilities in stress situations for a period of at least 30 days. Particularly
important to Othmar Karas has been making loans to Small and Medium-Sized
Enterprises (SMEs) easier: "Banks must focus on their core business, which is
financing the real economy." The new law reduces the capital requirements for
loans to SMEs and business start-ups. Granting loans become easier this way. In
addition, continental European banks are being strengthened in their competition
with Anglo-American competitors by recognizing the characteristics of European
banks as decentralized structures and loss-sharing agreements. "Our aim is to
make European banks as firm as a rock on the global financial markets",
concluded Karas.
3 comments:
"IMF chief's residence searched amid inquiry into her handling of €285m payout to Nicolas Sarkozy supporter Bernard Tapie. There are concerns that Lagarde, who replaced disgraced Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF after he was arrested on charges of sexual assault, later dropped, could be forced to resign if she is formally put under investigation."
No, in fact you have turned 360° - starting at supporting the KKE, and its out-of-EZ position, at the first Greek general election, then Syriza and its "we'll stay in the EZ but negotiate a better MoU through blackmail" position, at the second Greek general election, and now back to supporting KKE's position.
You can argue in support of parties like SYRIZA here but you don't, you prefer a full attack on Southern Europe.
Is Syriza representing all Southern Europe, or Greek citizens, with no exception? When you support policies of the ND + Pasok + Dimar coalition, you support the policies chosen by a (relative) majority of the Greek
No, I believe the EZ should have asserted its independance (and the fact it is a rich economic zone) by assuming itself the costs of the bailouts. This was also the position of the Sarko govt in fact and maybe of other ones. But the EU is the land of clunky compromises, so it wasn't the path chosen.
To be fair, the IMF wasn't the strongest proponent of austerity in the troika discussions with the Greek govt if what leaked of those was correct. So it's not sure at all that an MoU driven only by other EZ govts would have been less harsh. But it would have been more legitimate on a democratic point of view.
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