Charlie McCreevy, European commissioner for internal market and services, has proposed that Europe's financial regulators join together to form a college with a rotating chairman to help remove the barriers to cross-border business and help provide more unity in financial regulation.

McCreevy said at a conference in Brussels that the effects of the US sub-prime crisis on European banks had highlighted the need for greater co-ordination between national regulators as part of the monitoring of the activities of multinational banks, securities firms and insurers in the region.