Takis Arapoglou
This will be another year of significant developments in the European banking market, including the Greek one, as the process of completing the integration of the European credit area continues to be systematically promoted since 1999 when the Economic and Monetary Union began. Within this single currency area in Europe, this integration takes place both on business level, with the strengthening of cross-border cooperation and the creation of pan-European infrastructures, and on a regulatory level by the authorities of the European Union and the European Central Bank. Regulatory developments on the European level will be rapid if not stormy. Within the last decade, legislation has been issued and is enforced across the EU, particularly in eurozone members, regulating most aspects of banks’ operations. Demands, such as the preventive monitoring of banks and their subsidiaries in the credit sector, the efficiency of the money and capital markets, the protection of consumer credit services, the operation of payment systems, the record of transactions and the combating of financial crimes in the credit system are no longer tackled on the national level anymore, but on EU level. Of course, since in most cases EU rules bring minimum harmonization, member states themselves can impose stricter rules. This is positive because the peculiarities of each national market should be taken into account, but also negative because conditions of unfair competition are created between banks operating in states with less regulation and those in countries (including Greece) with stricter rules. Greek law will this year include many EU directions for the banking system, so the biggest part of the existing regulatory framework will be modified through them. As the chairman of the Hellenic Bank Association it is obvious that within the context of stiff cross-border competition I provide for the best possible adoption of those directives in Greece, so as to satisfy the policy issues set by European and national law as well as protecting the international competitiveness of Greek banks for the benefit of their clients and shareholders, which is the broad investing public in Greece and abroad. Takis Arapoglou is the president of the National Bank of Greece and the chairman of the Hellenic Bank Association.
