No. 49 - Foundations, implications and limits of regulatory intervention in relations between financial intermediaries and their customers

This edition of the QRG gathers the papers presented at a workshop on the subject of regulatory intervention in relations between financial intermediaries and their customers that was held in the period between the passage of Legislative Decree 415/2006 and the enactment of the Consolidated Law on Finance. The meeting was opened by the Director General of the Bank of Italy, Vincenzo Desario, who presented a brief summary of the secondary legislation adopted by the Supervisory Department, recalling that its action ‘is based on the principle of subsidiarity to the market.’ The workshop was coordinated by Prof. Ferro-Luzzi and began with a paper by Prof. Dolmetta on legislation in matters of transparency of contract conditions and the connection with general law on illegal clauses. Following this the subject of the standardisation of contracts from the economic and legal point of view was discussed. Prof. Grillo analysed the economic reasons that prompt firms to adopt measures to standardise or diversify products, making reference to the work of Prof. Polo on the links between administrative standardisation and competition. Prof. Ubertazzi then examined the juridical aspects of contract standardisation and the question of its relationship with competition, taking as point of reference the regulation on Standard Banking Rules issued by the Bank of Italy in its role as antitrust authority. In the second part of the workshop Prof. De Nova considered the potentially multiple objectives of Article 117.8 of the Consolidated Law on Banking and outlined the possibilities for future use of the administrative standardisation allowed by the Article, bearing in mind similar experiences of comparative law. Finally, Prof. Lener spoke of the purpose and the limits of administrative control of correct conduct in the banking, financial and securities sectors, tracing the line between competence of the administrative and of the judicial authorities.