BRUSSELS (MNI) – The Basel III agreements reached earlier this
month represent a “fundamental” boost to global regulatory standards,
and the phasing-in and transition agreements contained in the accord are
“realistic”, European Central Bank Executive Board member Gertrude
Tumpel-Gugerell said on Tuesday.

“I am of the view that the agreed reform strikes the right balance
between the overall objective of strengthening the resilience of the
financial sector and thus creating a sounder banking and financial
system on the one hand and avoiding unduly severe implications on
national banking systems and the real economy, Tumpel-Gugerell said at a
panel discussion at the Eurofinance conference.

Tumpel-Gugerell noted that important steps have been taken to adopt
and implement a new EU OTC derivative framework and welcomed the recent
European Commission proposals to increase transparency and reduce risk.

However, “the ECB still sees a need for improvement of the draft
regulation,” the central banker said.

Turning to the recently-created European Systemic Risk Board,
Tumpel-Gugerell stressed the commitment and support of the ECB.

“In particular, we need to ensure the availability of critical data
and information, which will be a crucial basis for any future detection
and analysis of systemic risk,” she said. “In this regard, it will also
be essential to further develop modern tools for the measurement and the
early warning of systemic risk.”

–Frankfurt newsroom, +49-69-720-142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$$EC$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$]