Macron Calls on EU to Delay Basel Banking Rules if US Does Too
(Bloomberg) -- Emmanuel Macron said the European Union should “synchronize” its financial regulation with the US, repeating his call not to apply stricter rules than others.
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“If we want to be competitive with the Americans, we have to synchronize two things: we have to try to push back regulations that are moving too fast in some areas and we have to try to get back on the same scale,” Macron said. “If they decide and confirm that they will not apply prudential rules to their operators, we need to give ourselves a little time, a little flexibility, so that we can reinvest in our own capital.”
New bank capital rules would impose more stringent capital requirements on banks to safeguard from future crises. Countries across the world were due to implement them simultaneously but various jurisdictions, including the U.S., have since chosen their own timeframes, prompting banks to complain about potential disadvantages.
Macron was speaking on a panel in Paris about the future of European competitiveness alongside former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, who had laid out an agenda earlier this year on how to harness the EU’s single market and integrate its financial sector. Macron has repeatedly endorsed Draghi’s conclusions, including the need for an EU-wide banking supervision system.
On Wednesday, Macron took aim at rules for insurers as well as those for banks, saying that they “added a lot of constraints on our bankers and insurers and made them exit the equity economy.”
He added that if the EU’s 27 member states can’t agree on a capital markets union within 18 months, a smaller group of like-minded states could gather together to reach an agreement on one.
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