Based on the famous Agatha Christie scenario, this tale takes place in Brussels at the heart of the Financial Institutions instead of the Orient Express.
The story stems from a European regulatory initiative to neutralize the banks 'at risk' during a financial crisis and avoid a repeat of 2008. In 2014, during Michel Barnier’s (European Commissioner for the Internal Market) last year in office, he was more determined than ever to reform the banking system and push through the so-called "bank separation." Since then the supervision of European banks has been strengthened and mechanisms have been put in place to prevent tax payers from footing the bill for bank bailouts. But banking separation has suffered a different fate. Although the idea of separating commercial banking from investment activities is not new, it encountered significant opposition from the banking sector. Since then the story has evolved along the lines of Agatha Christie’s novel, with bank separation at first involving thirty banks, today only3 remaining financial institutions are concerned, including 2 French. Obviously, the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, is not pleased that the 'only' banks in sight are French as he mentioned last Wednesday, at the National Assembly.
In addition, banks have pointed to the fact that the OECD and the European Central Bank rankings prove that France is among the European countries where taxpayers did not lose any money in the rescue of their banks since 2008.
Now Lord Hill, the British successor to Michel Barnier, could very well whistle the end of the game on this bogged down dossier.
To complete the novel, an MEP even mentioned that the text is now "in the fridge" and that it could stay there for a while, until it becomes obsolete.
History will tell us if the culprits will be sentenced...
Read the full article in French here