The European Commission is taking stock of its overall approach to equivalence in the area of financial services. EU equivalence has become a significant tool in recent years, fostering the integration of global financial markets and cooperation with third-country authorities. The EU assesses the overall policy context and to what extent the regulatory regimes of a given third country achieves the same outcomes as its own rules. A positive equivalence decision, which is a unilateral measure by the Commission, allows EU authorities to rely on third-country rules and supervision, allowing market participants from third countries who are active in the EU to comply with only one set of rules. Past Communication also sets out how recent updates to EU legislation will ensure even greater effectiveness of the EU single rulebook, supervision and monitoring, while also fostering cross-border business in global markets. The Commission has, to date, taken over 280 equivalence decisions with regard to over 30 countries.
Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services, and Capital Markets Union said: ”equivalence is one of our main tools to engage with third countries in financial services. It’s mutually beneficial because it enables us to have robust cooperation with our partners and to open up our markets to non-EU market players and vice-versa. Our equivalence policy has proven effective so far, and we now have even better rules in place to meet our objectives of preserving financial stability while promoting international integration of EU financial markets.”
This Communication sets out the EU’s comprehensive approach and recent legislative improvements in terms of how the Commission grants equivalence to non-EU countries. It also describes how the Commission and the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) monitor the situation in those countries after equivalence decisions have been taken, to ensure that these continue to fulfill EU objectives and preserve financial stability, investor protection, market integrity and a level playing field in the EU.
This Commission document also provides an overview of how recent EU legislative changes have strengthened the equivalence framework, both in terms of initial assessments and ex-post monitoring, in particular with an increased role for the European Supervisory Authorities. These recent legislative changes, for instance in the amended ESAs regulations, strengthen the roles of those authorities in monitoring equivalent third countries.
Recent equivalence decisions
In line with its commitments to foster transparency towards stakeholders, the Commission takes the opportunity of the publication of this Communication to present its recent EU equivalence decisions.
The Commission has recently adopted equivalence decisions for financial benchmarks administered in Australia and Singapore. These decisions recognise that the administrators of certain interest rates and foreign exchange benchmarks in Australia and Singapore are subject to legally binding requirements, which are equivalent to the EU requirements set out under Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 (The Benchmark Regulation).
Separately, the Commission has extended existing equivalence decisions in the field of Credit Rating Agencies for Hong-Kong, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. At the same time, the Commission has for the first time repealed existing decisions for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Singapore, as these jurisdictions could no longer meet the standards set by the EU Credit Rating Agencies after its amendment in 2013. The countries decided, after discussions with the Commission, not to implement the necessary legislative adjustments given the limited scale of activity to be covered.
Source: European Commission
