Mazars’ study on the review of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA, ESMA) on behalf of the European Parliament

Mazars was commissioned in early 2013 by the European Parliament to assess the performance of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) - part of the new EU architecture responsible for financial supervision created in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Responding to the challenges of the financial crisis, the European Union (EU) adopted a new financial supervisory framework: the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) in 2010. Its new European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) were established in the beginning of 2011 and are due to be reviewed by the European Commission by January 2014.

Ahead of the Commission’s report, the European Parliament asked Mazars to review and assess the performance of the three ESAs: the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA).

The study concludes that the ESAs have been established successfully but need a stronger foundation, in particular enhanced governance for decisions on EU-wide supervisory consistency issues. A key conclusion is that the benefits of legal and regulatory harmonisation (Single Rulebook) will be lost without consistent implementation and application. Finally, the report contains several recommendations to improve the ESAs’ effectiveness and efficiency.

The study was published on 21 November 2013, prior to which Mazars made a presentation to the Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on 5 November. The presentation was attended by the Chairpersons of the three ESAs: Andrea Enria (EBA), Gabriel Bernardino (EIOPA) and Steven Maijoor (ESMA).

Watch the webstream of Mazars’ presentation on the following link:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20131105-1230-COMMITTEE-ECON

The study can also be accessed on the website of the ECON Committee (The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs) at:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/studiesdownload.html?languageDocument=EN&file=26771

The opinions expressed in this study are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament.