As the EU struggles over the appointment of its new
Commission, financial services companies are waiting to see what
comes next
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The institutional stall has meant that the EU process of regulating
finance is happening at a “slow rate of progress”, EU Commission
president Barroso – who was re-appointed to head the EU executive
for another five-year term – said at the G20 Summit in
September.
Notwithstanding that, it is expected that a
number of areas which could affect lessors will be tackled, once
the institutional impasse is over.
One such area was highlighted last month by
Business Europe.
The EU employers’ lobby group warned that any
future changes to the Capital Requirement Directive could impact
upon companies’ access to finance, because raising capital
requirements for banks would reduce their capacity to lend.
As Kenneth Gray, a consultant at law firm
Norton Rose acknowledged, the Basel II framework for capital
requirements is likely to be amended.
“This will affect banks, finance lessors and,
in terms of the cost of borrowing, corporates, including operating
lessors. However, we are not certain exactly what the modifications
will consist of,” he said.
Moreover, it has emerged that more regulation
could affect those companies that offer insurance products as part
of their package.
Vincent Rupied, director of corporate
relations at Arval, said that the Commission project on this front
could concern the insurance component of leasing contracts,
especially in the case of fleet leasing.
He explained that the Insurance Mediation
Directive (IMD) is expected to be revised in 2010, giving way to an
“IMD II” which is possibly more severe on the requirements –
especially in terms of staff training – for any kind of insurance
offered to customers within full service leasing.
However, according to Rupied, “this may be
annoying, but not life threatening” for lessors.
The EU Commission’s spokesman for Internal
Market, Oliver Drewes, said he was unable to give further comment
on the issue.
He said: “The mandate of this Commission runs
out on 31 October.
“I am not in a position to tell you at this
stage if this issue is being taken up in the near future or
not.”
Earlier this year, the incumbent EU executive
also presented a long-awaited overhaul of EU financial supervision,
focused on creating two new supervisory boards in order to monitor
the stability of the financial system as a whole, and to oversee
individual institutions.
At the time, Drewes told Leasing Life that,
although no specific mention had been made about lessors, any
future supervisory structures could be “wider in scope” and include
not just banks, but their leasing arms, too.
Once the stall over the Lisbon Treaty is over,
the new Commission is expected to look into all these issues as a
priority, to make sure that a financial crisis of such big
proportions doesn’t happen again.
It remains to be seen to what extent this will
leave its mark on lessors, and how the industry will
react.
