A proposed EU crackdown on the ability of banks outside the EU to sell services into the bloc is intended to focus on “core” banking, a senior EU official said, in words that will ease industry concerns that Brussels is pursuing more wide-ranging restrictions.
Valdis Dombrovskis, EU executive vice-president, said it would be up to the bloc’s council of ministers and the European parliament to clarify the scope of the rules as they thrash out the legislation in coming months. But he stressed that the provisions contained in legislation proposed by the commission “were designed first and foremost to cover core banking services”.
He added: “The provision of core banking activities is conditional on having an establishment in a member state, meaning a branch or subsidiary . . . it must be said that implicitly those requirements were de facto there already.”