Banking sector competitiveness essential

CONSUMER protection cannot come at the expense of competitiveness in the banking sector, Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said in Dublin yesterday.

Speaking to local financial regulators in the Central Bank, Mr McCreevy said there was no need for regulators to seek to protect consumers from "every possible accident" and that individuals should be free to make mistakes in their financial decisions.

"Many of us in this room are from the generations that had the luck to grow up before governments got working and lawyers got rich on regulating our lives," said the EU commissioner. "We are part of the unregulated generation the generation that has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and investors. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how to deal with them all."