Second meeting of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS)

The second meeting of CEBS was held on 31 March 2004, at the Guildhall in the City of London.

At the meeting, CEBS took some important steps forward with respect to the establishment of its Secretariat, which will be based in London. Organisational issues relating to the Secretariat are close to being resolved, including the rental of premises for the Secretariat. CEBS aims to have the Secretariat fully up-and-running by September 2004.

A number of substantive issues were discussed at the meeting, among which significant progress was particularly made on two papers:A draft statement of CEBS' consultation practices, demonstrating CEBS' firm commitment to be open and transparent in its operations and reflecting the need for flexibility in the procedures to be used, according to the circumstances;A set of draft high-level principles on outsourcing, addressed both to institutions and to supervisory authorities.

CEBS will release these papers over the next weeks for public consultation.

Other issues discussed at the meeting included:A set of guidelines on information exchange between supervisory authorities, which will be fine-tuned within the next weeks;  The work programme for convergence of supervisory practices;The review of capital requirements, with a particular focus on the areas of national discretion foreseen in the draft Directive, cross-border issues and validation of Internal Ratings Based (IRB) models and Advanced Measurement Approaches (AMA) for operational risk;Accounting, auditing and reporting issues;Organisational restructuring in cross-border banking.


Notes:

 1. CEBS was established by a Decision of the European Commission and took up its duties on 1 January 2004.

2. CEBS will fulfil the functions of Level 3 Committee for the banking sector in the application of the "Lamfalussy" Process.  Its tasks are to:

a) Advise the Commission, in particular as regards the preparation of draft implementing measures in the field of banking activities;

b) Contribute to the consistent implementation of Community Directives and to the convergence of supervisory practices;

c) Enhance supervisory co-operation, including the exchange of information.

3. CEBS is comprised of high level representatives from the banking supervisory authorities and central banks of the European Union.  The EU acceding countries will participate as observers until 1 May 2004.  The EEA countries which are not members of the EU will participate as observers on a permanent basis.

4. The Committee is chaired by Mr José-María Roldán (Banco de España, Spain).  The Chair is supported by a Vice-Chair and a "Bureau", comprising 3 Members of the Committee. The Committee's Secretariat will be based in London, UK.