KPMG calls for moratorium on EU bank rules
THE EUROPEAN Parliament is dealing with an unmanageable thicket of new red tape, and should stop planning any rules for the next three years in order to deal with the backlog, KPMG consultants argued in a report published today.
Scrapping the planned financial transactions tax would be a good start, according to the report’s author Jeremy Anderson.
And cutting down and simplifying existing rules would also be a more useful way of helping the finance sector to reach more firms and help boost growth, he said.
“This is the time to pause for breath,” Anderson said.
“Once the financial system has been made safe enough for the time being, we need to focus on growth and jobs.
“Otherwise, there will be no economy for banks and financial services firms to support.”
He is sending the report to new members of the parliament’s economics and monetary affairs committee, which drives legislation in the industry, in the hope they will begin to rationalise the wave of regulation already on its way in.
As well as calling for an end to damaging and poorly co-ordinated regulation, the report suggests more positive steps MEPs can take to make life easier for small businesses.
It calls for international reform of taxes to help a European capital market develop. Currently, the US capital markets are broader and deeper, with even relatively small firms able to raise funds through share and bond issues, which is expensive and difficult or impossible in Europe.
And to help small firms access bank finance, Anderson is urging the legislators to promote a service to share businesses’ credit scoring information, for instance through an emerging European credit rating agency.