Thank you for inviting me. I notice you have changed your name since I was last here from IFSRA to the Financial Regulator. That will leave one spare acronym for us in Brussels to bag At this stage we can't be far off the point where all letters of the alphabet in all combinations of 3 and 4 have been used up!!

The EU financial sector has not yet realised its full potential. It can and must become more efficient, more competitive. To achieve that, further cross-border consolidation is needed. There have been a number of interesting, and sometimes positive, developments recently- both here and further afield. But no real pan-EU player is emerging yet.

Obstacles to cross-border consolidation stifle competition and innovation. They stand in the way of institutions seeking greater economies of scale. That means they limit their competitiveness on a global scale. It means their underwriting power is lessened and their cost of funds is increased. We have a responsibility to remove the main barriers which prevent financial institutions from fully benefiting from the Single Market.
One of the issues that must be addressed as a matter of priority is the supervisory issue...