On Tuesday 26 november the Dutch competition authority, NMa, held a conference to explain that a separate group of 8 employees will be monitoring the competition in the financial markets. The conference enjoyed a quite considerable press coverage given that Minister of Finance Zalm recieved the first financial monitor report from President of the NMa, Mr Kalbfleisch. The first monitor financial markets can be downloaded (here (in Dutch)).
The monitor itself unfortunately draws heavy on research that is not sufficiently specific to support its conclusions. Also once again, there is a call for number portability in banking. Which should remind me to write an article on estethic policy thinking and policy making (where esthetic and impossible practicle solutions keep on entering the mind of regulators, meanwhile blurring the analytical difference between policy goals, policy alternatives and policy implementation).
