Larosiere says UK must play its part in EU supervision

LONDON - The UK should play its part in the creation of European Union (EU) level supervisors, Jacques de Larosiere told Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Tuesday.

Larosiere, a former governor of the Bank of France, presented the proposals of his EU high-level expert group on financial supervision in Europe on February 25, recommending new pan-European supervisory bodies to co-ordinate micro-economic prudential supervision and macro-economic systemic oversight across the continent.

The report has already provoked a response from UK chancellor Alistair Darling, who wrote to the current EU presidency holders the Czech Republic extolling the role the Bank of England must play alongside the eurozone's interest rate-setting European Central Bank in systemic risk supervision.

"It would be a pity for this body not to have the benefit of the knowledge and experience of the Bank of England, but I think it would be more of a pity if the UK, especially in the present state of its financial affairs, were to turn its back," said Larosiere to the House of Lords' European Union sub-committee on economic and financial affairs and international trade.

European leaders are attempting to forge a common top-level approach to cross-border supervision and regulation ahead of the gathering of the global G-20 nations in London on April 2.