Capital Markets Union

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2015 General Committees

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

It might be helpful to the Committee if I take a few minutes to explain the background to the documents and why the European Scrutiny Committee recommended them for debate. In February, the Commission launched a consultation about a proposed capital markets union. In September, it published a communication about an action plan for building the CMU. The Commission detailed a range of some 20 reforms that are a combination of legislative and non-legislative actions across a range of policy areas related to EU capital markets. Those actions aim to make it easier for all businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to get access to funding and to create more investment opportunities for savers and investors.

Since 2007, the capital requirement directives have introduced a supervisory framework in the EU, which reflects the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision rules on capital measurement and capital standards. The latest legislation, known as the capital requirements directive IV, has been in force since July 2013 and transposes into EU law the latest global standards on bank capital adequacy. As part of the CMU project, the Commission seeks the development of a simple, transparent and standardised—or STS—securitisation market to support jobs and growth. It has proposed the first regulation before us today, to update the legal framework for securitisation and to develop the proposed STS regime. The second proposed regulation would amend a CRD IV regulation by recalibrating the prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms either issuing or purchasing securitisations.

The European Scrutiny Committee noted the Government’s welcome for the CMU action plan, albeit with reservations about insolvency, private pensions and credit information about SMEs. We suggested that Members could explore those reservations further in this debate. We also noted that the Government strongly welcome the legislative proposals, although they seem to have reservations about some of the detailed text concerning possible binding remediation, the final certification and supervision regime, and the extent of the need for delegated acts.

Additionally, the Government have recently, and belatedly, identified a justice and home affairs issue in the proposed securitisation regulation that might require a UK opt-in to the measure. The Economic Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee to inform him of that on the evening of 1 December. The European Scrutiny Committee suggests that in this debate Members could further explore the Government’s reservations and the justice and home affairs issue.

[The Chair]

I now call the Economic Secretary to the Treasury to make an initial statement. I remind Members that there will be no interventions on the statement, but there will be an opportunity for questions subsequently.