[author: Rebecca Cousins]

On 26 January 2016, the Chairpersons of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) (i.e. EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) sent a letter to the European Commissioner for the Directorate General Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.

The letter flags up that differences in primary legislation currently preclude the ESAs from developing consistent guidelines on cross selling across the investments, insurance and banking sectors in the EU and asks that the Commission look into the differences in financial services legislation and consider the steps required in order to guarantee that the ESAs are fully equipped to regulate these practices, to the benefit of consumers, financial institutions and supervisory authorities. The ESAs suggest that the Commission may have an opportunity to review these matters as part of its follow up to its September 2015 call for evidence on the EU framework for the regulation of financial services and its December 2015 green paper on retail financial services.