Supervising financial services in an integrated European single market: A discussion paper

This discussion paper, prepared jointly by HM Treasury, Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Bank of England is a contribution to the discussion on the supervision of increasingly integrated financial markets in Europe, although many of the themes it addresses are applicable to the global commercial environment where many EU firms operate. The paper sketches out five related challenges that need to be addressed to make progress on achieving convergence of supervisory practice and offers some proposals for how this can be achieved. Such proposals do not require new EU legislation but rather focus on practical solutions to this complex issue. Taken together, these challenges and proposals present an ambitious framework for action.