'Fog in Channel' - The Disconnect between England and France

04.12.09

The fashionable global financial crisis has once more underlined the differences between the two countries, effectively over how much additional financial regulation is needed to reign in the ungoverned transactions that triggered the calamity. While the arguments are focused on the banking sector, the insurance industry has also been tense into the debate.

There is a fundamental difference in philosophy as to what "regulations" – of any approachable – are supposed to do. France, with its long history of middle control, imposes a more stringent and intrusive type of dereliction on business activity than the more free market oriented English. France describes U.S. and British businesses as being the "Anglo-Saxon" exemplar – a somewhat patronizing circumlocution that reminds the French how opportune they are to have their government looking out for their interests. Oddly enough, no one in the UK or the U.S. describes the French system as the "Visigothic" representation.

The latest "hot spot" in this ongoing debate surfaced with the election of French politician Michel Barnier to the European Commission (EC) in the key prop as overseer of interior markets for the European Union, which includes economic regulation. As a former Minister of Agriculture (France receives billions of dollars a year in acreage subsidies from the EU), he is known to be a strong supporter of toughened pecuniary regulation. France's outspoken President, Nicolas Sarkozy called Barnier's position a "victory over the Anglo-Saxons."

Source: Insurance Journal