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The Annual report was submitted to the European Commission and to the President of the European Parliament and the ECOFIN Council in accordance with the Article 4 of the European Commission’s decision of 6 June 2001 establishing the Committee of European Securities Regulators (2001/527/EC).
Apart from establishing the institutional environment within which CESR works, the Annual Report sets out the activities of CESR in 2004. The main part of the annual report summarises CESR’s key areas of activity throughout the period and the achievements of CESR to put in place a proper regulatory and supervisory environment for the EU single market for Financial Services.
The report reflects the high level of participation in CESR’s work by a wide range of market participants, both by the chapter on the work of the market participants’ panel and by the pie charts showing a breakdown of responses to consultations by sector. In addition, CESR’s expert groups have benefited from the experience of market participants through consultative working groups which have been formed to advise the various expert groups during the development of their policy work. This dialogue with market participants (in all its forms) has been critical to the work of CESR, and we are very grateful for the quality of input we have received which has greatly informed CESR’s thinking in all areas of our work. CESR has also continued to work in a Level 2 capacity, providing the European Commission with advice in response to specific mandates. However, as reflected by the extent of work reported on within Chapter 5, there has been an increasing shift in emphasis to ensure supervisory convergence of a Level 3 nature. This will continue to form the main part of our efforts in 2005 and 2006 as reflected in an outline of the CESR work programme for 2005 in Chapter 6.
In CESR’s annual report of 2003, CESR noted it would also seek to build convergence and co-operation beyond CESR, both on a cross-sectoral basis and on a transatlantic basis. As such, this years annual report describes the development of close working relationships with our two sister ‘level 3’ committees; the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS). We will continue to build on this dialogue during 2005. Looking beyond the EU, CESR’s objective to establish a dialogue with the US SEC in order to avoid conflicts of rules across the Atlantic has been further complimented by the launch of a dialogue with the US CFTC, which will now ensure that the full range of securities regulation on a transatlantic front is included in this effort. CESR looks forward to working closely with the US SEC and the CFTC further during 2005. In addition, CESR has drawn heavily on the valuable work of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) which has developed international consensus in a number of key areas relating to CESR’s work and this has been particularly helpful.
This is the third CESR Annual Report since the Committees’ establishment in 2001 and, as such, reflects the significant progress that has been made in carrying out our formal role in the European securities regulatory process as endorsed by the EU Institutions.
