European Regulator June 2011

June 2011

Welcome to the June edition of European Regulator.

First, a ‘thank you’ to those who sent emails responding to our initial edition in April and especially to those who suggested topics we might cover in future editions.  We hope to provide you with a regular analysis of the key legal and regulatory reforms which are likely to affect your businesses in Europe.  Your comments on what issues are most relevant to you are always very welcome.   

The regulatory response to the world economic crisis continues and since our April edition there has been no let up in the reform agenda, both in the UK and across Europe. 

In this edition:

• Financial regulation in the UK is set to change with proposals to separate supervision of conduct from prudential regulation.  Sound familiar?  However, of much greater concern for banks is a proposal to ring-fence their UK retail activities.
• The UK government is reviewing the UK competition regime, focussing in particular on the merger review process.  Transactions which will give an acquiring party any level of control will be subject to the new rules.
• The European Commission has published a Corporate Governance Green Paper proposing significant reforms to the European corporate governance framework.  Many of the issues covered in the Green Paper are highly topical in other countries such as Australia.
• Against a backdrop of the financial crisis in Greece we examine the failure of the EU to agree ‘bail-in’ procedures for failing banks.

• Our In Brief section provides a snapshot of other recent and future developments across Europe.

Best wishes,

Robert Hanley, Partner