07:26 Thursday 13th December 2012
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: European leaders have agreed a new deal to bring the continent’s biggest banks under the control of a new Europe-wide banking regulator. Our business guru is Tony Bonsignore. Morning.
TONY BONSIGNORE: Morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Mmm. Mmm. Not everybody is going to be happy with this, are they?
TONY BONSIGNORE: No. Some people in the City of London are going to be rather worried about it, one would imagine, given that Europe’s banks seem to be coming together and Europe are agreeing shared responsibility for banks, and especially for bailing out banks when things go wrong. The problem is if you’re on the outside of that, the problem is you might lose business. You might suddenly look less attractive to people who might be thinking of placing their business with you. So maybe people in the City of London are a little bit worried. And also some Germans as well, who tend to end up bankrolling these things in Europe. They’re the ones who are most concerned within the single currency about what this means.
PAUL STAINTON: And isn’t it the first step along the road to federalisation?
TONY BONSIGNORE: Yes I think it is. I think this is .. the European Union are saying this is “an historic moment”. They’re saying it’s .. I’ve heard the Cypriot Finance Minister say it was a “Christmas present to the whole of Europe”. Now I’m not quite sure that’s an accurate way of describing it, but it certainly is a big moment, and the feeling is I think that we’re moving towards political union. This is an important first step. I think there’s so much to do, so much to be agreed, and so much to argue about.
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