For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 25, 2003
Informal Financial Markets Dialogue Fact Sheet
U.S.-EU Summit
The U.S.-EU Financial Markets Dialogue was created in March 2002 as a
forum to discuss issues arising in connection with capital market
developments between the United States and the EU.
It is led by the
U.S. Treasury Department and the European Commission with
participation by U.S. financial regulators (the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Board) and their European
counterparts. Several meetings have been held to date in Brussels and
in Washington DC, the latest of which took place in Brussels in early
June 2003.
The dialogue recognizes that the U.S. and EU both seek to promote
trans-Atlantic growth that will generate real benefits to savers and
investors through efficient and open capital markets and sound
financial market supervision and regulation.
Both sides believe that
achieving these shared objectives in substance is important and
appreciate that the form by which each side goes about achieving these
objectives may differ, in light of our diverse cultural, historical and
legal traditions.
The dialogue has enhanced understanding and has been helpful in
containing "spillovers" into each other's jurisdiction that arise from
national law or regulation.
In this context, both sides believe that
these technical, financial, regulatory and prudential issues are best
handled bilaterally by direct contact between the appropriate financial
and regulatory authorities. The dialogue is a two-way process.
U.S. authorities and firms are interested in a broad range of
prudential/regulatory issues arising from the EU Financial Services
Action Plan, which seeks to more fully integrate EU financial markets
by 2005.
The U.S. believes that an efficient and well-regulated single
EU capital market, which welcomes leading-edge products and technology,
will stimulate economic growth in Europe, facilitate international
capital flows and benefit U.S. firms and investors - in short, a
"win-win" outcome.
The globalization of financial markets means that European
financial institutions and firms are increasingly active in
American financial markets and have a growing interest in U.S.
prudential/regulatory issues.
The U.S. has also recently enacted new
securities legislation in response to instances of corporate
malfeasance and lapses in corporate governance.
The EU has been
engaging with the U.S. in order to understand and better manage
overlaps in regulation and supervision that can have broad
international ramifications.
The U.S. and EU recognize the importance
of this dialogue for their respective governments and private financial
sectors and they aim to continue to facilitate meaningful progress on
issues of interest to both sides in the coming months.
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