EUROPE- Europe’s Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has established a panel of consultants to help it work towards harmonising the EU’s financial regulatory system.

The CESR was launched last year to improve co-ordination among securities regulators and to act as an advisory group to the European Commission. One of its tasks is to monitor the introduction of any relevant EC legislation by member states.

CESR decided to set up the new panel following resolutions by the Council and Parliament to endorse the Lamfalussy Report which calls for a harmonised approach to financial regulation.

The new panel of experts, whose inaugural meeting is in September, will act as a sounding board for the CESR. More specifically, it will give its thoughts an any CESR proposals, assist the Committee in laying out priorities and keep it informed of any regulatory changes in member states.

Each state has a representative on the panel and the Commission has nominated John Mogg, director general of the DG market, as its representative.

Sitting on the new 14-member panel are many of Europe’s financial luminaries including Deutsche Bank chairman Rolf Breuer, Donald Brydon, chairman of AXA Investment Managers, Mariano Rabadan, chairman of Inverco, Spain’s association of investment and pension funds and Dott Salvatore Bragantini, chief executive of Italy’s Centrobanca.

Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, chairman of the CESR, said: “with such an outstanding initial composition of the panel, CESR will benefit from the expertise of high quality individuals, including end-users and consumers, with a significant experience in the securities field and a rich European track record.”

Earlier this month many of Europe’s top regulators met in Brussels for the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee public hearing on the supervision of financial services in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom collapses.