PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union’s securities watchdog favours more transparency in the credit default swaps market, its executive director told an event in Paris on Tuesday.
Turbulence in Europe’s banks following the Credit Suisse’s rescue and runs on regional U.S.
banks has focused attention on the role played by credit default swaps, where sharp moves have shown how easily investors can be spooked.
Natasha Cazenave, executive director at ESMA, told the Tradetech equity trading conference that recent discussions around the migration of CDS contracts had showed “common willingness to adopt consistent approaches in tackling global regulatory challenges” with regulators in the UK and United States.
Cazenave stressed global regulators do not all have the same tools to regulate the market.
“Global regulators do not have the same tools at their disposal.
And unfortunately, ESMA still lacks the means to either temporarily suspend the derivative trading obligation or to issue a proper no action relief,” she said.
(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie, writing by Yoruk Bahceli; editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)
