And, my long suffering friends, what do we make of this "European negotiators last night struck a deal to create agencies with the power to over-rule the decisions of national regulators like the UK’s FSA and act directly against banks, insurers and other financial institutions.

The new agencies would have sweeping powers to intervene at their own discretion, rather than at the request of a national supervisor.

The new EU supervisory authorities, if approved in upcoming votes of the European Council and European Parliament, may raise the alarm, issue instructions to the national supervisor concerned or if necessary directly instruct the financial institution to remedy any breach of EU law.

They will also have powers to investigate specific products or financial activities to assess what risks they pose to a financial market. A European Parliament statement highlighted naked short selling, which permits traders to sell financial instruments which they have yet to borrow, as an example of a practice that could be investigated. It added that the agencies would have the power to ban products and activities in emergencies.

It is intended that the new agencies, alongside a European Systemic Risk Board, will be up and running by January.

The risk board will develop a uniform ratings system to measure the riskiness of cross-border financial institutions, establishing colour-coded grades to reflect different risk levels.

Conservative economic and monetary affairs spokesman Vicky Ford MEP, who took part in the negotiations, said that the new agencies would protect consumers from cross-border crises. But, she added: 'At the same time national governments and national regulators keep their frontline responsibility to protect national tax payers' interests.'"

First toe in the water anyone??

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C'mon folks - does this have relevance in our quests??

Bump

C'mon folks - does this have relevance in our quests??

I wouldn't think so. Regulators can only regulate according to the regulations. There are no regulations controlling the level of bank charges.

However I do seem to recall that there are some things stirring in Europe that might have a bearing. And, anyway, I thought current UK bank practices had already been shown to be at variance with some Euro laws and regs.