The EU regulation on the cross-border provision of investment services : from mutual recognition and competition among rules to "regulation through Committee"

Abstract

This thesis is about the EU regulation of the cross-border provision of investment services. The objective of the thesis is to identify the regulatory strategies underlying the current and future regulation in the field of investment services. The thesis departs from the assumption that the field of investment services is undergoing a change of regulatory strategy. The regulation in the field has for long been based on a regulatory strategy of mutual recognition and competition among rules. Concurrently, a regulatory strategy based on the adoption of detailed regulation and the creation of a common policy by and within a network of committees has emerged. This regulatory strategy is referred to as ’regulation through committee' in the thesis. The strategy of ’regulation through committee’ has gained more and more weight in the field of investment services. Recent developments show that the importance of ’regulation through committee’ will continue to increase in the future. To describe in detail and test the assumption of a change from the regulatory strategy of mutual recognition and competition among rules to the strategy of ’regulation through committee’ in the field of investment services, the thesis will seek to answer the following three questions: 1. What is the underlying regulatory strategy of the current EU regulation on the provision of investment services? 2. What is the underlying regulatory strategy of the future EU regulation on the provision of investment services? 3. In the future regulation of the provision of investment services, will the choice of regulatory strategy differ depending on whether a given piece of regulation has the objective of protecting retail or professional investors?