The New Capital Requirements Directive: what are the missing pieces to the puzzle?

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Abstract

After almost seven years of hard work to produce a new substantive piece of legislation updating the current banking regulation for European credit institutions and investment firms - the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) - it looks like its adoption is still gravely uncertain. The main problem is the dissatisfaction of Parliament with its limited role in the Lamfalussy process in general and in the CRD in particular, which has led it to suspend the comitology provisions of the CRD, casting doubts over the future of the legislation. This situation has been partly provoked by the way in which the European Commission has played its role in the CRD process, which has suffered from several weaknesses. As a result, a number of different scenarios could materialise concerning the adoption of the new Directive. Unless a formal inter-institutional agreement is reached with respect to comitology, there is a high risk that the CRD will be unduly pushed towards a second reading in Parliament, which in turn puts a question mark over its timely implementation.

The objectives of this Policy Brief are to evaluate the role of the European Commission in the CRD legislative process. It identifies the main scenarios expected in the adoption episode and offers recommendations with respect to some outstanding issues in the key provisions of the Directive.