On his maiden visit to the United States in his current capacity, The Honorable Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services discussed ongoing efforts in both Europe and the United States to restructure financial services: measures made all the more contentious in light of the sovereign debt crisis affecting member states of the European Union and the Eurogroup. Mark Sobel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Monetary and Financial Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury; James Chanos, Chairman of the Coalition of Private Investment Companies; Patrick Herman, Minister-Counselor for Economics at the Embassy of Belgium; and Julie Chon, Senior Advisor to Chairman Christopher Dodd on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee then participated in a panel discussion regarding the U.S., EU and private sector perspectives on the new proposed financial regulations. Frank Kelly, Managing Director and Head of Government Affairs – Americas at Deutsche Bank and The Honorable Clay Lowery, Vice President of International Government Affairs at Cisco served as moderators for the discussion.
This meeting was supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through funds of the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.