Final Report of the European Capital Markets Expert Group. Press release. CEPS ECMI

Brussels, 3 February 2016 – The European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI) and the Centre for the European Policy Studies (CEPS) are pleased to announce the launch of a report of the European Capital Markets Expert Group (ECMEG). The report offers a methodology to identify and prioritise cross-border barriers to capital markets integration and provides a set of policy recommendations to improve its key components: price discovery, execution and enforcement. In particular, evidence suggests that data comparability among European financial and non-financial firms, from accounting to conflict of interest data, is very low. Less discretion and greater transparency of internal calculation methodologies for IFRS reporting and a centralised database for company filings and business registries are among its 33 policy recommendations. Tax and authorisation procedures are in some cases unnecessarily cumbersome or even discriminatory for foreign EU firms. Enforcement of rules and contracts is currently the weakest piece of Europe’s financial system, as convergence relies on a handful of bodies that have limited powers and on a system of governance that does not protect the ‘European interest’. This report calls for the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to play a central role in the integration process, equipped with more binding powers to advance convergence in specific areas, such as accounting practices and licensing of UCITS and AIFs. ESMA would still rely on the network of national regulators, but with a more independent management, more shared competences and a specific list of entities under its direct supervision. The quality of national courts is also very low in relation to other advanced non-EU economies and policy actions remain insufficient in areas like insolvency proceedings and redress procedures

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