The U.S. Securities Industry Association is seeking more convergence between regulators in Europe and the U.S.

Speaking on behalf of the SIA at the Transatlantic Financial Market Convergence Luxembourg Symposium, James Leigh-Pemberton, chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston’s European investment-banking division, highlighted the importance of convergence.

Leigh-Pemberton urged the financial leaders in both the U.S. and the European Union to act with more urgency in taking steps toward having more regulatory convergence among the transatlantic capital markets.

He also suggested that the respective regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Council of European Securities Regulators, “should begin to approach issues related to regulatory convergence with an eye toward integrating the transatlantic institutional markets as a first step…”

He suggested that, “[d]ifferent and/or duplicative regulations based on similar or identical policy rationales only complicate the ability of firms and their customers to conduct cross-border business efficiently and to provide low-cost products and services to clients. Through greater convergence of regulatory approaches, even limited to the institutional markets, encumbrances on cross-border business could be measurably reduced without in any way diminishing investor protections.”