EU: Financial Services Distance Selling

Following a two-year struggle to gain approval for EC proposals on EU-wide rules governing the sale of financial services via telephone, direct selling or the Internet, a speech by Commissioner Mario Monti on 14 October is expected to propose a compromise to break the stalemate. In trying to reach agreement with the EP and MS, the EC is reported to have given up its insistence upon a controversial clause (the “minimum clause”) which would have allowed individual MS to implement stricter rules than those set by the EU legislation. This compromise is expected to be rejected by those MS which have called for the right to set tougher national laws.