Briefly noted

▪ The European Commission is expecting more co- ordination and co-operation between member states’ financial services regulators in the near future, according to internal market commission Charlie McCreevy. Speaking on the priorities for Europe’s financial markets in an address to the European Economic and Social Committee, Mr McCreevy said he wanted to see an end to fragmented and duplicative supervision of pan-European companies.“We will be looking for supervisory and enforcement mechanisms to be strengthened and joined-up across the Member States. Companies with pan-EU operations suffer from a huge administrative burden as a consequence of fragmented supervision. Hence, the Commission has set some clear goals on which supervisors need to deliver,” Mr McCreevy said, adding that duplicated supervisory reporting requirements “should be eliminated by 2008”.