On January 27, 2016, the European Supervisory Authorities published a letter, dated January 26, 2016, from their Chairpersons to the European Commission on issues arising in the regulation and supervision of cross-selling financial products in the EU. The ESAs—ESMA, the EBA and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority—are responsible for preparing guidelines on the supervision of cross-selling of financial products for each of the securities, banking and insurance sectors. However, due to discrepancies between EU primary legislation which governs such cross-selling practices across the different sectors, the ESAs are unable to provide harmonized guidelines. The primary legislation includes the Mortgage Credit Directive, the Payment Accounts Directive, the Insurance Mediation Directive and the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Differences identified relate to the formal wording of the legislation, scope, level of granularity and date of application. The ESAs consider that a more harmonized approach across the sectors would be beneficial for consumers, financial institutions engaged in cross-selling and national regulators supervising the practice. The ESAs therefore urge the Commission to consider reviewing the underlying legislation, including within the Commission's current consultations on Retail Financial Services in the Banking and Insurance Sectors and/or its Call for Evidence on the regulatory framework in financial services.
The ESA's letter is available at: https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esas-submit-joint-letter-europeancommission- cross-selling-financial-products.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.