Matthias Haentjens - European Banking and Financial Law

In recent decades, the sheer volume of European legislation in the domain of financial law has swollen exponentially. Banks, insurers, pension funds, investments firms and other financial institutions are all finding themselves increasingly subject to a European regulatory framework. Furthermore, financial transactions too are, to an ever-greater extent, governed by precepts that originate in Brussels. Within such a context, this book is intended to serve as an initial introduction to the field of European banking and financial law. It covers not only regulatory (European) law, but also includes elements of commercial and financial law that have a bearing on the most notable financial transactions.

Thus, this textbook analyses European financial law legislation as a starting point, but it also clarifies the most salient international standard contracts (usually governed by English law), of which LMA and GMRA contracts feature prominently. It is organised around the three (economic) themes that are central to the financial industry: (i) financial markets; (ii) financial institutions; and (iii) financial transactions. Within these three themes, the primary focus is on banking (as our title indicates), for it is our contention that the bank continues to prevail as the most important financial institution in the European financial sector.

As the book revolves around European financial law legislation, the task of writing it while keeping pace with the tempo set by the Brussels legislator was a challenge. Nonetheless, we have sought to account for all important recent developments. Of the legislation that has been enacted in 2014 alone, we cover, for instance and inter alia: the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, the Single Resolution Mechanism, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, the Market Abuse Regulation and the Residential Credit Directive. We have chosen to review only statutes that have been enacted by the European legislator irrespective of whether or not they have been implemented at national level by the relevant Member States. MiFID I, for instance, was still in force at the national level upon the completion of this textbook, but in due course, it will be replaced by national implementations of Directive 2014/65 (i.e. MiFID II), which has already been enacted. At the relevant places, we have highlighted the similarities and differences between MiFID I and II. In so doing, we hope to prepare the reader for the imminent (financial) future.

This is a book aimed at the needs of lecturers and students alike, while also providing a valuable resource for practitioners (lawyers, chartered accountants, financiers and bankers) working in a global environment. We wished to provide a textbook that gives an initial introduction to European banking and financial law and jointly covers both regulatory and commercial law, as it became clear to us that these typologies of topics are now being taught with the same breadth in several universities across Europe and indeed globally. For the same reason (the educational purpose of the textbook), we deemed it useful to include both questions and references for further reading so that it can be readily used for teaching purposes.

As is befitting for a textbook, our words of thanks are due, first and foremost, to our students, most in particular our PhD student Robert Colhoun, our student assistants Boudewijn Smit, Dorine Verhey and Daan Helleganger, and the students of International Banking and Financial Law at Heriot-Watt and of Financial Law at Leiden University. Also, we are grateful to our anonymous reviewers for their most valuable comments and suggestions.

Finally, as this is a textbook to be used principally in academia , by definition it is neither finished nor complete. Conversely, this work is intended to serve as a basis for daily interaction between students and lecturers and, therefore, it is expected to be adapted in the future to the ever-changing needs of both. In light of this, we would be delighted to hear any comments you might have with a view to ensuring the further improvement of our work going forward.

Matthias Haentjens
Pierre de Gioia-Carabellese

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