Joint Statement
The global economy and advances in technology have offered financial services firms be they traditionally banks, insurers or broker-dealers - the ability to offer services across
physical and political boundaries and in real time. The explosion in the availability of
financial products has lowered prices, expanded access to credit and made millions of
Americans and Europeans more economically secure than the generations that preceded
them.
However, barriers to market access, non-tariff barriers and balkanized regulatory regimes
both in the EU and in the United States continue to restrict the delivery of financial
products. In many instances these regimes artificially reduce competition to the
detriment of consumers.
Chairmen and CEOs representing some of the largest financial firms in both Europe and
the United States recently met in Washington D.C. under the auspices of the Financial
Services Roundtable and the European Financial Services Round Table, and have agreed
to cooperate in the following areas with the goal of eliminating barriers to the provision
of financial services.
We encourage the United States and European Union to achieve mutual recognition of
corporate governance regimes so as to eliminate the extraterritorial impacts of the
respective approaches.
We encourage Congress to initiate a review of regulatory changes imposed by SarbanesOxley. In particular, attention should be paid to the extraterritorial impact of the law.
We also encourage efforts to develop mutual recognition of adequate and equivalent
consumer protection and supervisory regimes for banks, insurers and financial services
groups.
We endorse convergence of high quality accounting standards that promote transparency
in financial statements and reduce market volatility. However, we do not believe that the
current IAS proposals 32 and 39 and ID 5 meet these criteria, and therefore suggest a
delay in formalizing these rules until the industry’s concerns have been addressed.
Moreover, we support a moratorium on any further efforts by the IASB to require the use
of “fair-value” principles.
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We are committed to trade liberalization worldwide and continued efforts to reduce
barriers that restrict the free flow of goods and services. We oppose steps by
governments to limit trade and influence business decisions related to where companies
source business operations. Trade is the principal engine of economic growth, an
effective way to improve transparency in developing nations and necessary to raise living
standards across the globe.
In Europe, our efforts focus on the completion of a single market, which must include:
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Harmonization of regulation and supervision
Harmonization of consumer protection regimes
Creation of a single capital market
Pension reform
In the United States, our efforts focus on creating and maintaining national standards
including:
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Enforcement of the National Bank Act
Support of OCC preemption of non-prime lending statutes
Establishment of the primacy of federal securities laws
Creation of an optional federal charter for insurance companies
Litigation reform
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The Financial Services Roundtable represents 100 of the largest integrated financial services companies
providing banking, insurance, and investment products and services to the American consumer. Member
companies participate through the Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives nominated by the
CEO. Roundtable member companies provide fuel for America's economic engine accounting directly for
$17.1 trillion in managed assets, $888 billion in revenue, and 2.0 million jobs.
www.fsround.org
The European Financial Services Round Table (EFR) currently has 17 Members, Chairmen or Chief
Executives of leading European banks and insurance companies. The purpose of EFR is to provide a strong
industry voice on European policy issues relating to financial services. The initial objective is to support the
completion of the single market in financial services in Europe. Chairman of the EFR is Pehr
Gyllenhammar.
www.efr.be
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