The FT reports this morning that Michel Barnier, Europe’s top financial regulator, has shelved plans to rein in the credit rating agencies. Barnier, who is internal market commissioner, had to bow to objections elsewhere in the EU. We report that Barnier still unveiled proposals to transform the business model of the big agencies but has ordered some last-minute “technical work” that amounts to a ceasefire.
Both Barnier and the rating agencies were discussed in the House of Lords last night, where former City minister Lord Myners was on scathing form. First the Labour peer (a former chairman of Marks & Spencer) criticised the “flawed thinking” from the European Commission on the issue. He then continued:
I worry very much about Mr Barnier. I met Mr Barnier when he was a Minister. He came to see us at the Treasury. He came down the corridor and I was watching him. I am a great fan of art and I was rather impressed that he stopped to look at every painting. I thought this is a man with whom I share a common interest-until I realised he was actually looking at his reflection in the glass on every painting, and adjusting his hair or his toupee. This to me is a man whom we should treat with a very long spoon. I hope the Minister will take due care in working with Mr Barnier because we have been forewarned that this man intends to seek even more powers than those he announced today. He said he wants to return to the issue of censoring rating agencies. I sincerely hope that the Government and the Opposition would have no part in endorsing such an activity.
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