§ Mr. Tim SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in negotiations on the terms of the investment services directive; and what issues remain to be determined.
§ Mr. RedwoodThere have been many meetings of officials under the Italian presidency on this important market-opening measure. Ministers have considered it twice at ECOFIN.
The main area of political controversy centres on the proposal, originally put forward by France, that certain transactions be confined to "regulated" markets. This was discussed at the meetings of the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers which I attended on 19 November and 3 December. It will be discussed further at ECOFIN on 17 December. The United Kingdom Government are opposed to the principle of such a restriction. Whatever is proposed must not compromise the ability of investors anywhere in the Community to choose how to invest their money.
Other matters subject to negotiation include:
whether members of the professions, appointed representatives and sole traders (natural persons) should be included in the scope of the directive;the inclusion of conduct of business principles;whether banks should have direct access to membership of stock exchanges; andwhether certain rules governing the conduct of business should be disapplied to inter-professional dealing.The Government will continue to press hard in the negotiations to achieve the best possible outcome on the directive as a whole for United Kingdom investment firms, United Kingdom investors and financial markets.