EUROPE – The European Union has been spurred into action following the Parmalat debacle, and is scrutinising a number of directives and regulations in its wake.

While the EU said that some of the root causes of the Parmalat fraud were specifically related to Italy, such as he family-owned status and the country’s banking system, it admitted there were more international problems – over 40% of Parmalat’s bond placements were conducted by US investment banks.

However, the EU said it had already identified a number of the problems, and was in the process of tackling some of the issues, including statutory audit, market abuse, company law and corporate governance.

One of the main aspects of proposed changes would be that companies would have to reveal all of their finances, even those done ‘off the books’, such as securities sales made through trusts, which do not always need to be announced publicly.