Jose Manuel Barroso has said he will this week propose “individual criminal responsibility for financial players to be recognised in European law”. The plans for an EU-wide directive would focus on curbing high frequency trading. “We have seen abusive behaviour, and some of this caused the current crisis. We are going to clamp down on these practices,” Mr Barroso told Le Parisien. “Those who violate the rules will face criminal penalties. This will be a first in European legislation and a strong signal.” The Commission will invoke new powers under Article 83 of the Lisbon Treaty allowing the EU to impose minimum rules and sanctions on member states when needed “to ensure the effective implementation” of EU policies. The clause allows the EU to broaden the European Arrest Warrant beyond limited areas such as terrorism, drug-trafficking, and money-laundering to softer crimes if they have a “cross-border dimension”. G20 finance ministers praised Europe’s efforts to “maximise the impact” of the EU’s €440bn bail-out fund (EFSF) and ensure that the region’s banks are “adequately capitalised”, but there were heated exchanges behind closed door as the Anglo-Saxon states, and India rebuked Europe’s leaders for failing to grasp the nettle and mobilize the full lending power of the European Central Bank. “They clearly have more work to do on strategy and details,” said US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “In financial crises, it is more risky to act gradually and incrementally than to act with bold force”. Diplomats say Mr Geithner’s plan to use the ECB as a guarantor of eurozone sovereign bonds was dismissed out of hand, while the EU failed to offer clear assurances that bank recapitalisation would be carried out with sufficient speed and scale to halt an incipent run on the system. Olli Rehn, the EU’s economics commissioner, said Brussels will announce a “very serious plan” over come days to beef up banks and strengthen the firewall against contagion. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle politely told the US to mind its own business. “I cannot understand some of the comments of our American friends. You can’t solve a debt crisis with more debt,” he told Bild Zeitung. Germany's finance minister says private holders of Greek government bonds must accept bigger losses to achieve "a durable and sustainable solution" for Europe's debt crisis. Wolfgang Schaeuble told German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday that an agreement struck in July when banks and other investors agreed to renounce on 20 percent of their Greek debt must be renegotiated. He says the private sector's contribution to a reduction of Greece's debt burden "will probably have to be higher." The Institute of International Finance, a global bank lobbying group, says its managing director Charles Dallara is in talks with officials from the 17-nation eurozone about the July agreement. Spokesman Frank Vogl declined to elaborate, but the group's leadership has so far rejected accepting bigger losses.
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Monday, October 17, 2011
Lot's of "smoke" again ...
Jose Manuel Barroso has said he will this week propose “individual criminal responsibility for financial players to be recognised in European law”. The plans for an EU-wide directive would focus on curbing high frequency trading. “We have seen abusive behaviour, and some of this caused the current crisis. We are going to clamp down on these practices,” Mr Barroso told Le Parisien. “Those who violate the rules will face criminal penalties. This will be a first in European legislation and a strong signal.” The Commission will invoke new powers under Article 83 of the Lisbon Treaty allowing the EU to impose minimum rules and sanctions on member states when needed “to ensure the effective implementation” of EU policies. The clause allows the EU to broaden the European Arrest Warrant beyond limited areas such as terrorism, drug-trafficking, and money-laundering to softer crimes if they have a “cross-border dimension”. G20 finance ministers praised Europe’s efforts to “maximise the impact” of the EU’s €440bn bail-out fund (EFSF) and ensure that the region’s banks are “adequately capitalised”, but there were heated exchanges behind closed door as the Anglo-Saxon states, and India rebuked Europe’s leaders for failing to grasp the nettle and mobilize the full lending power of the European Central Bank. “They clearly have more work to do on strategy and details,” said US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “In financial crises, it is more risky to act gradually and incrementally than to act with bold force”. Diplomats say Mr Geithner’s plan to use the ECB as a guarantor of eurozone sovereign bonds was dismissed out of hand, while the EU failed to offer clear assurances that bank recapitalisation would be carried out with sufficient speed and scale to halt an incipent run on the system. Olli Rehn, the EU’s economics commissioner, said Brussels will announce a “very serious plan” over come days to beef up banks and strengthen the firewall against contagion. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle politely told the US to mind its own business. “I cannot understand some of the comments of our American friends. You can’t solve a debt crisis with more debt,” he told Bild Zeitung. Germany's finance minister says private holders of Greek government bonds must accept bigger losses to achieve "a durable and sustainable solution" for Europe's debt crisis. Wolfgang Schaeuble told German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday that an agreement struck in July when banks and other investors agreed to renounce on 20 percent of their Greek debt must be renegotiated. He says the private sector's contribution to a reduction of Greece's debt burden "will probably have to be higher." The Institute of International Finance, a global bank lobbying group, says its managing director Charles Dallara is in talks with officials from the 17-nation eurozone about the July agreement. Spokesman Frank Vogl declined to elaborate, but the group's leadership has so far rejected accepting bigger losses.
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6 comments:
If we want to sanction rogues, and apply personal criminal responsibility to those who flout the law, should Pres Baroso not be taking aim at the entire political class? having ratified a treaty stating that there would be no bail outs.....need I go into further detail? Maybe Guy de Havillande is utterly deranged, but were there not a few other conditions to membership of the "1984 Fan Club" er, sorry, I mean the single currency, which have been broken by most of th members? Oh, but how silly I am, these were only cast in stone, ratified by every nation, including those who voted no but changed to yes by an overwhelming swing of 0.0001% when instructed to keep voting until the answer was yes. Obviously the wording was only intended as a vague set of guidances rather than rules. Anyway, just off to check the valuation of some assets, in case I am breaching current loan to value covenants on the loan..... but hang on, I believe the rules have changed.... banks dont have to write down worthless sovereign debt prior to maturity dates, so I assume the wont need me to write down any asset values?
Fantastic. So how will he distinguish between market manipulation and only making the trading intentions clear? How friendly ties you got to the commission maybe? Come to think of it, since any trade will communicate a market sentiment, how do you distinguish any trade from market manipulation? When it embarrasses a politician? The exchanges already have mechanisms in place to detect dodgy behaviour, and unless a case is very sensitive to state security, a minor, or other deserving (or undeserving in the former case) the details of the cases are public. Bah, all he is trying to do is impose precedent for more commission power
Thank God for someone like Barroso. At least he speaks for the people. The UK government won't act. The US government won't act. It looks as if the European government is willing to act. Let them do so! The banksters need to have their wings clipped. I'm all for it. I am foursquare behind Barroso. More power to him!
Wow! "The Commission will invoke new powers under Article 83 of the Lisbon Treaty allowing the EU to impose minimum rules and sanctions on member states when
needed “to ensure the effective implementation” of EU policies". This would give the EU massive new powers and a truly great "Treaty Change" along with the ones already taken note of re the ignoring of the "No Bail out Clause" and the proposals put forward to alter that.
All 27 Countries in the European Union ratified the Treaty of Lisbon in which we can read quite clearly in Article 125 TFEU “The Union shall not be liable for or assume the commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of any Member State, without prejudice to mutual financial guarantees for the joint execution of a specific project.” That legislation is still in place, lodged securely in the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties and will remain so until all 27 Countries put any Treaty alterations and in the Case of the United Kingdom, the Treaty change giving more authority to the Members of the Euro has been put before the people of this Country in a referendum as promised.
In spite of the "No Bail out" Clause above, The United Kingdom has already given/loaned money towards one "bail out" even though this Country is not in the Euro,
so ANY change in the Treaty of Lisbon must indeed put before the people of this Country in a referendum whether this country should remain in the European Union.
I now refer to a matter of concern on two suggestions, one on the reorganisation of the Treaties, and the other on the reform of the Treaty amendment procedures which proposed rather radical changes in Treaty revision, including the abolition of the Single Currency veto
Barroso earns 304,000 Euros each year (paid by the taxpaying serfs of Europe) and has an expense account of 730,000 Euros a year for travelling and "representation". He's held his unelected position for 7 years. This is the man who recently stated that "national governments (i.e. elected sovereign governments) are not to be trusted "
German and French banks must accept bigger losses on their loans to Greece, the German finance minister has conceded, signalling his rejection of intense lobbying by Deutsche Bank for only limited writedowns on loans to Athens.
Wolfgang Schäuble said banks must be better capitalised to prevent an escalation of the eurozone crisis and collapse of the financial system.
"We need better regulation and we also need a better capitalisation of banks, which is what we are doing in the short term. Not everyone will like it, but it is the best way to ensure that we don't have an escalation in the crisis due to a collapse in the banking system," Schäuble said.
His comments come ahead of an EU council meeting next weekend that is expected to allow Greece to default on at least 50% of its debts and unveil a "bomb proof" firewall to protect other vulnerable countries.
Schäuble admitted banks had lost trust in each other and were refusing to conduct normal lending – either to other banks or commercial businesses.
But a demand for further writedowns could force several governments, including Angela Merkel's Berlin administration, to nationalise or part-nationalise several institutions.
Belgium, in particular, has come under pressure in recent weeks following concerns that it will need to spend billions of euros rescuing its banks despite already pumping €5bn (£4.4bn) into Franco-Belgian group Dexia.
Up to 30 banks in the eurozone may need extra capital after writing off Greek debt
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