EC Financial Services and Contract Law – Developments 2007–2010

Abstract

The contribution is a follow-up on the overview published in ERCL 2008, 45 and covers the latest developments from 2007 through the first half of 2010. The law with respect to prudential supervision has changed little; there are, however, changes underway as a reaction to the financial crisis (see section I). More importantly, however, contract law developed considerably. Important new legislation has been adopted in the area of commercial banking, while the Market in Financial Instruments Directive of 2004 (MiFID) and its transposition were at the centre of the last report. New legislation has now been adopted in the other two important sectors of banking business and thus the series of second generation of banking law directives is complete. In the area of bank loans, harmonisation has changed considerably with the new EU Consumer Credit Directive of 2008. In the area of the payment business, changes have been even more drastic, as virtually all payment instruments have now been harmonised with the new EU Payments Systems Directive of late 2007, and this not only for the consumer area. This directive now covers: credit transfers, credit and debit cards, and direct debits. The importance of the new material makes it necessary to concentrate on these two measures mainly (sections II and III) and to add only two short sections on important developments under the MiFID (section IV) and on some general considerations concerning the overall picture now reached in European Banking Contract Law (section V).