madam president i am pleased that solvency ii has at last reached the point of decision
mr skinner and his shadows have displayed exemplary resilience and patience in achieving this
i am sorry also like others that group support is excluded but not surprised frankly in the current febrile circumstances
we need to work hard to achieve a group system that will work for and in a truly european single market for insurance which is also effective with third countries we cannot have any more aig fiascos
i would also like to compliment rapporteur gauzès and the council on reaching a reasonable conclusion to the regulation of credit rating agencies
clearly these agencies have made serious mistakes and some form of increased regulation was inevitable
but who has not made mistakes not least the regulators themselves and can we be sure they are now above making any future errors
i was concerned that the rabidly hostile scapegoating of credit-rating agencies would result in excessively intrusive and counter-productive regulation with an overwhelming eurocentric protectionist and extraterritorial dimension
the compromise i am glad to see has muted these tendencies to some extent but not to the extent i would have liked to have seen
credit ratings are an opinion they are useful opinions they are expert opinions but they are only opinions so it is up to investors to take full responsibility for their investment decisions
no doubt these lessons have now been learned and all too starkly and at a cost
i am glad the scope is restricted to ratings used for regulatory purposes
i am glad to see that we have moved away from equivalence and endorsement when dealing with third-country ratings to equivalence or endorsement
but could the commissioner please confirm that this means that investors can still invest freely in stocks and bonds in third countries which are not rated in europe or which do not have equivalent status
we must be on the look-out for unintended consequences
with no prior impact assessment these will almost certainly appear and therefore the review requirement in article thirty-four is of vital importance
