FINANCIAL SERVICES : IMF GIVES POSITIVE SCORECARD TO EU REGULATORY OVERHAUL.

• Position: International Monetary Fund - European Union - Brief article

'Significant progress' has been made in strengthening regulations in the EU's financial sector to avoid another crisis occurring, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded in a new report. Clearly satisfied with the direction the EU has been taking, the IMF urges it to keep up the momentum by finalising adoption of outstanding proposals by mid-2013 and by implementing ones already on the statute books. The encouraging message was conveyed on 20 December 2012 after the IMF completed its first ever assessment of the EU financial sector as a whole, carried out from 27 November to 13 December.

Drilling down into the details, the IMF welcomes the boosting of the European Central Bank's supervisory powers over Europe's banks that EU leaders agreed to on 13 December. It urges EU lawmakers to speed up passage of the fourth capital requirements directive, directives for harmonising bank resolution and deposit insurance schemes, and the...