Following the example of the U.S. Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee a group of European professors and other independent experts in the fields of banking, finance and the regulation of financial institutions and markets set up the European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (ESFRC) in Spring 1998. Chairman of the Committee is Professor Harald Benink, who is a professor of finance at the Rotterdam School of Management of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and who is a senior associate to the Financial Markets Group (FMG) of the London School of Economics (LSE). For contact please send an e-mail to: h.benink@fbk.eur.nl.

Members of the Committee

The ESFRC currently consists of the following 15 members, coming from 11 European countries  and from the United States:

• Harald Benink (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands & FMG/LSE)
• Tom Berglund (Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland)
• Christian de Boissieu (University of Paris I - Sorbonne, Paris, France)
• Franco Bruni (Bocconi University, Milan, Italy)
• Jordi Canals (IESE, Barcelona, Spain)
• Richard Dale (University of Southampton, United Kingdom)
• Philip Davis (Brunel University, London, United Kingdom & FMG/LSE)
• Hans Geiger (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
• Friedrich Kübler (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University & Clifford Chance, Frankfurt, Germany & University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA)
• Karel Lannoo (Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium)
• Rosa Lastra (University of London, United Kingdom & FMG/LSE)
• Reinhard Schmidt (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany)
• Benn Steil (Council on Foreign Relations, New York, USA)
• Niels Thygesen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Clas Wihlborg (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark & Gothenburg University, Sweden)

The ESFRC issued its most recent statement, "Bank Supervisors' Business: Risk Management or Systemic Stability?", in Basel on May 12th, 2003.

All ESFRC statements can be found on the website of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. Moreover, the statements of all Shadow Financial Regulatory Committees (from Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the U.S.) are available from the website of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC.

Press Coverage

Press coverage on the Committee’s activities has included The Economist (London), Financial Times (London), The Banker (London), Euromoney (London), Financial Regulation Report (London), Journal of International Banking Regulation (London), Reuters (London), Dow Jones (London), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurt), Handelsblatt (Frankfurt), Les Echos (Paris), La Tribune (Paris), Il Sole 24 Ore (Milan), Borsa & Finanza (Milan), Expansión (Madrid), Finanz und Wirtschaft (Zurich), Finanzmarkt und Portfolio Management (Luzern), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Zurich), Børsen (Copenhagen), Dagens Industri (Stockholm), Kauppalehti (Helsinki), Taloussanomat (Helsinki), Rzeczpospolita (Warsaw), Het Financieele Dagblad (Amsterdam), and De Telegraaf (Amsterdam).

Independence of the Committee

The European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee meets three times every year. The ‘shadow’ function of the ESFRC is related to the Committee’s purpose of following and analysing critically the existing and evolving regulatory framework for financial institutions and markets. Moreover, at the end of each meeting the ESFRC organises an international press conference during which a public statement is issued on topics discussed during its meeting. The Committee is fully independent of the providers, regulators and supervisors of financial services whose behaviour it aims to evaluate.

The independence of the ESFRC is also expressed by the fact that the Committee will not accept sponsoring by financial institutions and regulatory/supervisory authorities.

Analytical Mission

The analysis of the regulatory framework is based on existing and proposed European Union directives, national regulations, recommendations by international forums such as the Basel Committee and the Group of Thirty, and on relevant academic research in this field. Typically, the Committee tries to translate concepts drawn from academic literature into concrete policy recommendations with respect to certain subject areas. Topics to be covered by the ESFRC during the coming years could include: remaining barriers to the completion of the EU single market for financial services, guidelines for the design of financial services regulation, the pros and cons of universal banking and bancassurance, banks and derivatives, electronic payment services by non-banks, supervision of financial conglomerates and non-banks, supervision on a European level vs. home country control, capital requirements, and state ownership and/or support of financial institutions.