Panacea EU policy does not work

REGULATION

Papers on the advantages and disadvantages of EU membership are published this summer, but Dr Tim May, chief executive of the Wealth Management Association, says the EU's ‘one size fits all' policy could be detrimental to the retail and wholesale markets.

While it is true the tide of regulation emanating from European Union institutions has increased since the financial crisis of 2008, our experience of EU rulemaking predates that considerably. When the EU drew up its Financial Services Action Plan in 1999 it intended to create a single market for wholesale financial services, open and secure retail markets, and state-of-the-art prudential rules and structures of supervision. This single market, in other words, was to be for those global financial institutions which were already well skilled in transacting across borders and harmonisin...