Nur in Englisch

This end of year Newsletter aims to update ECRC members and partners about recent discussions, initiatives and developments affecting or potentially being of interest to stakeholders of credit and debt in Europe. It also informs on the successful international conference held in Brussels in September 2007, where our collective Principles for responsible credit were specifically discussed, representing the first solid step in the work ahead in further developing them together. Also a source of lessons for us throughout the coming years will be analysis on the causes and effects behind the ”sub-prime crisis”, which has been affecting both the personal lives and corporate lives of the two sides of the financial services market. Also of obvious topical and highly significant concern, is the pending EU legislation on the consumer credit Directive which we have followed for a number of years together and which is set to be finally ratified by the European Parliament vote on 15th of January 2008. Our comments are available on the website, and we forewarn that efforts of the coalition will probably need to be mobilised within the first weeks of January if we and others feel that the Directive should be further improved. Numerous hyperlinks have been included in this letter to enable readers to inform themselves in more detail about the opinions or events referred to. We hope you have all had a satisfying year and look forward to still stronger involvement and commitment on the part of all our partners next year.