Jean-Jacques Pluchart

The Turgot club attended the round table organised on 27 January 2026 at the headquarters of Linklaters by the Association Europe-Finance-Régulations, on the theme of banking regulation. ​​The debate brought together stakeholders from the mutual bank (J. Carmona, President of Crédit Mutuel), the banking federation (B. Quatre), the ACPR (E. Rocher), the Banque de France ​ (F. Haas) and Moody’s (A. Laurin). ​​It was introduced by B. Marquez (OECD) and moderated by S. Miet (KPMG).

Four main themes were discussed during the ensuing debate: the compatibility between regulation and competition; the harmonization of rules and practices; their simplification; and the new issues of regulation.

Compatibility between regulation and competition in the banking sector ​​

The participants agreed on the merits of the regulations but they deplored their overall complexity (nearly 10 ratios must be calculated by banking institutions), their instability (the consolidated equity ratio was increased from 6 to 16% of assets between 2008 and 2024), their disparities between countries (international groups are thus led to arbitrations between their national subsidiaries) and the multiplication of controls by the supervisory authorities. ​​This heterogeneous set – considered “impressionist if not pointillist” –  ​entails increasingly significant additional costs for banks and therefore for their customers, but it also introduces biases that are difficult to quantify between the conditions of competition from one country to another.

Harmonization of banking regulations

The debaters believe that, despite sometimes provocative statements by the US banking authorities, the United States should adhere to the Basel agreements, subject to some adjustments, in particular because US banks are increasingly present in Europe. ​​On the other hand, differences in the interpretation and application of the provisions (in particular of Basel 3) are perceptible between the member countries of the European Union, due to the fragmentation of the market and the absence of a banking union. ​​In particular, the various stakeholders would like to see a consolidated application of liquidity ratios at the level of banking groups and not their subsidiaries.​The head of Moody’s says that the rating agency’s task is complicated by the need to correct the biases introduced by distortions of competition.

Simplification of procedures

All the stakeholders attribute the current complexity of the procedures to the multiplicity of regulatory bodies (central banks, European Commission, Ministries of the Economy), but most of them only want the supervision of the regulation to be ensured by a single institution (for example, the ECB). ​​They  ​want simplification of procedures rather than deregulation. ​​This objective is difficult to achieve due to the diversity of the sizes and businesses of the institutions. ​​Simplification should be preferred to standardization. ​​The effects of simplification must be anticipated.

The new issues of banking regulation  ​​ ​​

The debaters raise several issues that should be addressed within the framework – or outside the framework – of the Basel Accords: the harmonization of mortgage markets; the development of crypto-assets and, in particular, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies; specific credits financing the ecological transition and the digital transition; the digitization of banking procedures, etc.

In summary, despite the criticisms against them, the Basel Accords have demonstrated their efficiency, particularly in the face of the latest crises, but their simplification and their “controlled operationalization extended to new monetary and financial vehicles” are proving increasingly necessary.