Search results (680 cards)

Advanced search

In Spain, the liberalization and legalizalisation of online games, provided by the Act for January 2012, was postponed in June 2012. The licensing by the regulator is in preparation. These licenses may relate to all kinds of games including sports betting and casino games, excluding slot machines. But the Spanish tax services informed that an implied condition of approval of an operator candidate for obtaining a licence existed: payment of taxes due in Spain. However, many companies, whose headquarters is located in another country, have high arrears of taxes calculated by the administration. It can be noticed that the fiscal interests of the States is a key element in the regulation of the games, that can interfere with the mechanism, which appears however distinct from the approval by the regulator.

The European Commission, sensing potential anticompetitive behaviour in the pharmaceutical sector, conducted an inquiry into this sector, and adopted its final report on the matter on July 8th 2009. The Commission’s suspicion was that anticompetitive behaviours could be slowing down the entry of generic drugs into national markets, whereas the burden of drug spending on public finances and public health policy make rapid generic entry an important issue. The Commission concluded that delays are due in part to pharmaceutical companies’ behaviour, especially as concerns the use they make of their intellectual property rights. However, on the other hand, one may also sustain that the strategic use of an acquired legal right is no less than legitimate, and that public health policy is a matter for national regulation. Indeed, it is for Member States, rather than European competition law, to determine the level of healthcare coverage that their society is financially willing to bear.

The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF- French Prudential Supervision Authority) set up a Scientific Advisory Board under the supervision of its president Gérard Rameix, who is also president of the AMF.

The Scientific Advisory Board chose ‘Financial education in the digital era’ as the theme of its annual conference, which was held on 20 June 2016 in partnership with Paris School of Economics.

The conference was opened by François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France (France’s central bank). He stated that financial literacy “shall help everyone make informed decisions”. In this regard, financial literacy is a “factor for economic efficiency and social fairness”, which justifies involvement from public authorities- including, namely, the Banque de France. In partnership with both the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR- French Prudential Supervision Authority) and the AMF, the Banque de France ought to be a “caring educator, but an attentive regulator”, as it is “imperative that financial literacy and Regulation should be taken forward jointly, as to allow for new technologies to develop, which would be understood by all and for the benefit of all”.

Three roundtables followed. The first roundtable aimed at assessing financial literacy trends and their impact on the financial behaviour of consumers and investors in Europe. The second session focused on the opportunities opened up by new technologies (upon which Fintechs, e.g., crowdfunding platforms, data aggregators and automated financial advice services are thriving) as regards financial behaviours. Lastly, the third panel discussion, which involved several French (AMF, Institut National de la Consommation- INC, French National Institute for Consumer Affairs) and European (European Commission) Regulators, draw conclusions from the first two roundtables and discussed on the issues that an increasingly digitalised financial education raises for Regulatory authorities.

Since this conference raises many crucial questions for Regulation, it is important to recall what has been said in the panel discussion on the role of Regulator with regards to financial education (I.) before sharing some thoughts on this matter of particular interest (II.). 

Michel Prada is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux (Sciences Po Bordeaux) and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). From 1966 to 1970, he was an Inspecteur des Finances. (...°

Airports are critical infrastructure. They often receive support from the State and the European Commission has adopted specific guidelines to soften the principle of prohibition of State aid in this area. Yet it is not necessary that the regulation be the mask of a violation of competitive equality. This is why the Commission has extended and prolonged on June 27, 2012, the investigation initiated in 2007 proposed to the airport of Alghero, Italy. Indeed, the investigation revealed including infrastructure subsidies, which the Commission doubt that they are comply with EU law.

This is the drama of the summer and the case of the Mistigri: in what game drag one that will drop the player? Indeed, it pretends to discover that the purely declarative Libor system works by the good of those who declare, namely the banks. If one day a child said that the King is naked... This day was June 28, 2012, when the Financial Services Authority condemned the Barclays for manipulation of course. Since then, is the head, the bulk of support as the other? Thus, the FSA condemns. Well takes it, since the Government asked him to consider a reform of the Libor. On 10 August, the FSA makes first conclusions, to an increase in the powers of the FSA. But the English Parliament responded on 18 August, stating that if the FSA had a little more control this before, nothing would have occurred. Oh, what beautiful summer...

Rating agencies are in the eye of the cyclone, due to the ambiguity of the situation: by their status, they are simple operators but by their role are almost regulators. Governing the markets, the banks can not for the moment dispense with them. However, the rating market is oligopolistic. On August 1, 2012, the association of German public banks complained that the prices practiced by rating agencies are monopoly pricing. What is remarkable is that this a complaint is made not to the European Competition Authority, the Commission, but to the European Banking Authority (EBA). Thus, regulation is a tool and a wider tool more than is the competition.

The “Conseil économique, social et environnemental – CESE” (French Economic, Social and Environmental Council) expressed its approval of the “Stratégie nationale de développement durable SNDD” (new French National Strategy for Sustainable Development), on January 27 2010, which has been drawn up by the Government for the period 2009-2013. This national strategy is to become the tool for establishing a new model of economic development.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/html/index.en.html

Switchboard: +49 69 1344 0
Public enquiries: +49 69 1344 1300 / info@ecb.europa.eu 
                                              ECB Contacts, here.