European Union Looks to Tighten Banking Supervision

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/business/global/28euro.html?ref=global
<snip>
European Union regulators may get the power to overrule national banking authorities under plans to tighten banking supervision that are aimed at avoiding a repeat of mistakes that led to the credit crisis.

The proposals, published by the European Commission on Wednesday, call for new European supervisors to have the right to step in and settle disputes if national regulators cannot agree on the oversight of multinational financial institutions, whose businesses cross borders.

“It’s now or never that we build a consensus on financial supervision,” Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news conference unveiling the proposal, Reuters reported. “I think we will do it.”

That idea is likely to provoke opposition from Britain, which has argued that, since national governments have to finance their bailouts, their own regulators should have the final say.