The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has called for "smarter" financial regulation, rather having than more or having less regulation, to improve consumer confidence.

Gabriel Bernardino, EIOPA chairman, said at the AMICE conference in Nice: "Our aim is to have smart regulation and not killing the industry with unnecessary rules."

He explained that smart regulation involved taking the consumer's behaviour into account so that they are at the "heart of regulation", and that this type of regulation would recognise the limitation and biases in consumer decision-making.

Bernardino also said that smarter regulation would also have to anticipate problems, rather than address only the problems of the past and that it is regulation that reflects the evidence of what works and what does not.

He said: "Have we lost regulatory balance? I don't think so. Among regulators there is the general consciousness of the possibility of unintended consequences of regulation.

"And there is the recognition of the need to pause and let the new regulatory approaches settle to see what needs adjusting, what needs to be calibrated. Ceaseless change should not become the 'new normal'."

He added: "Let's build together better and smarter regulation that brings more stability and confidence from consumers."

First published 19.06.2014

monique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk