The urge to converge

Two recent reports put the status of regulatory convergence between insurance, banking and securities regulators under the microscope.

Convergence between insurance, banking and securities regulators is naturally happening, according to a new report by the Joint Forum, and is expected to continue and deepen over time. In an ideal world, the state of supervisors’ convergence should reflect the level of convergence between the industries they regulate. Financial conglomerates have been particularly keen for supervisory convergence to keep pace. While the Joint Forum’s report says this is happening, a recent meeting of Europe’s finance ministers, ECOFIN, expressed its frustration at the pace of convergence.