EUROPE – Calling the current framework for investment funds “an old banger”, Europe’s new internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy says he will review the asset management industry in a bid to help defuse the pensions timebomb.

“We need to take fresh look at asset management,” McCreevy said in a speech today. He said the current single market framework for investment funds is in need of considerable improvement. “To be honest, it’s a bit of an old banger.”

Speaking at the Committee of European Securities Regulators’ conference in Paris, McCreevy said that “more needs to be done to broaden the single market freedoms available to fund managers”.

“To give investors access to best of breed savings products. To embrace financial innovation. To give investors relevant regulatory protection.” The Commission will publish its assessment of priorities in the second half of 2005.

“This will therefore be the first step in a potentially significant project – promoting an integrated, modern and competitive fund industry which can play a large part in defusing Europe’s pension timebomb.”

And McCreevy highlighted the need for a more efficient and secure post-trading environment for cross-border clearing and settlement. His staff are setting up groups of market participants to discuss the issues involved.

“For clearing and settlement, 2005 will be a year of preparation, analysis, economic impact assessment and building consensus,” he said. But he said any new directive on would be subject to an assessment of its economic impact.

McCreevy also told delegates he doesn’t expect another sweeping regulatory programme along the lines of the Financial Service Action Plan – which he acknowledged had induced “regulatory fatigue”.

“The Commission’s approach will be evolutionary – not revolutionary; practical not theoretical; and carefully calibrated.”

Topics