Nicolas Véron

Credit Rating Agencies

Bruegel just published this briefing paper which I prepared a few weeks ago at the request of the European Parliament's ECON (Economic and Monetary Affairs) committee. In it, I argue that the information and reference privileges currently enjoyed by credit rating agencies should be dismantled to establish a fairer competition with other financial risk assessment services providers. This is far more important than regulating the agencies themselves.

Download BruegelPolicyContribution_Feb09_Ratings in case the above link does not work.

Global Accounting Standards' Fuzzy Oversight

The Financial Times today published an Accountancy Column in which I look at the governance reform announced last week by the IASC Foundation, which oversees the setting of International Financial Reporting Standards.

I express doubts as to whether this reform marks progress. In any case, the trustees of the IASC Foundation have much more to do to ensure IFRS' sustained acceptance globally.

Download FT_090205 in case the above link is broken.

Europe's financial supervision

These two pieces were published this month. Both address the issue of how to reform Europe's banking and financial supervisory architecture, as a follow-up to my December piece in CESifo Forum and earlier papers such as Bruegel's Policy Brief of August 2007.

In English: Download FinancialWorld_Feb09, published in Financial World, the London-based monthly published in association with the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, with a scathing discussion by Malcolm Levitt (who, by the way, is wrong when suggesting I favour an ECB option);

In French: Download Banque_Feb09, published in Banque, the monthly magazine of the French Bankers' Association.

Global Crisis: Global Response?

In this column published yesterday by La Tribune, I look at the global dimensions of the crisis and the existing policy instruments to address them. Among other issues, tere is a particularly glaring gap as regards the oversight of key non-bank global intermediaries such as audit firms, rating agencies, and clearing and settlement services providers.

Download Tribune_090203_en to read the piece in English, and Download Tribune_090203 as originally published in French.