FINANCIAL SERVICES : CEBS PUBLISHES ADVICE ON COMMODITIES SUPERVISION.

On 4 January 2007, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) published its first advice on prudential supervision of commodities firms.

Two FSAP directives - Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) - will bring some types of currently unregulated commodities business under their ambit. Both directives therefore require the Commission to look at whether a specific supervisory regime should be set up to cover such business. As a first step, the Commission, in August 2006, asked CEBs to look into if and how such business is currently supervised in member states.

CEBS was mandated to provide a survey on existing supervisory practices by December 2006. A further survey on the prudential risks arising from the conduct of commodities business will be delivered by April 2007.

A questionnaire was sent the EU member states and Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland). Information was also collected on the prudential supervision in...