EU leaders backed on Sunday a blueprint for streamlining how banks are supervised to spot excessive risk earlier to better protect investors, according to Reuters. An emergency summit of European Union leaders on the economic crisis stressed the need to improve regulation and supervision of financial institutions. They welcomed recommendations last week from a high level group headed by former Bank of France Governor Jacques de Larosiere and looked at how cross-border banks, insurers and markets could be better supervised. That group recommended setting up two new broad supervisory bodies in the EU -- one chaired by the ECB to monitor system-wide risks, the other to combine the efforts of national supervisors. "We encourage the European Commission to rapidly implement the de Larosiere report," German Chancellor, Angela Merkel told a news conference at the end of the summit. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said everyone at the summit considered the report excellent and he wanted speedy action at the EU's next summit on March 19-20. "We all agree it was important that this takes effect at the next European Council in March. We will take a decision," Sarkozy told reporters. Gordon Brown, prime minister of Britain, the bloc's biggest financial centre, also welcomed the de Larosiere report, an EU diplomat said.
