Europe’s supervisors face up to issues

European regulation has made its presence felt in financial services in the past six years but what are the issues facing regulators over the next decade? Speaking to the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority recently, FSA chairman Callum McCarthy explained why he is unhappy with the current home-host supervisory procedures and believes finding a solution will be one of the major tasks for regulators in future.

I take as a given that we live in a world in which global competition is becoming ever more a reality, and are dealing with an industry which is internationally mobile: financial firms can – and do – move their country of operations relatively easily and quickly in response to what they see as the relative advantages and disadvantages – cultural, resources (particularly human resources), tax, regulation – of different countries.