国际英语新闻：EU finance ministers to overhaul financial supervision

BRUSSELS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Finance ministers from European Union (EU) member states were expected to agree on an overhaul of financial supervision across the 27-nation bloc as they arrived here for a two-day meeting Monday.

Following months of bargaining, negotiators from EU governments and the European Parliament clinched a political deal last week on the creation of a new financial supervisory framework for the EU, under which three new pan-EU financial watchdogs would be created to strengthen micro-prudential supervision and a European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) would be established for macro-prudential supervision.

The three new watchdogs would be responsible for overseeing banks, insurance companies and trading on markets respectively. They would work in tandem with the existing national supervisory authorities to safeguard financial soundness at the level of individual financial firms and protect consumers of financial services.

As regards multi-national financial institutions, the watchdogs could impose legally-binding mediation in the event of disagreements between national supervisors. If no agreement could be reached within the relevant college of supervisors, they can even impose supervisory decisions on the financial institution concerned.

They would also combine nationally based supervision of firms with strong coordination at the European level so as to foster harmonized rules as well as coherent supervisory practice and enforcement.

If a national supervisor implements EU financial rules incorrectly, the watchdogs may raise the alarm, issue instructions and, if these go unheeded, directly instruct the financial institution to remedy any breach of EU law.

The ESRB would monitor and assess potential threats to financial stability that arise from macro-economic developments and from developments within the financial system as a whole. To this end, the ESRB would provide an early warning of system-wide risks that may be building up and, where necessary, issue recommendations for action to deal with these risks.