Portugal’s Tavares Chosen as Acting EU Market-Regulation Chief

European Union securities regulators voted to install Portugal’s Carlos Tavares as acting chief of the European Securities and Markets Authority.

Regulators from the 27 EU member states met in Paris today to decide on a temporary chairman for the agency, which was established Jan. 1 to replace the Committee of European Securities Regulators. Tavares was previously chairman of CESR.

“We still have to appoint a chairman and executive director, which will come in March or April,” Tavares, 57, said in an interview last month. “ESMA will have significantly more staff, growing from 45 to around 70 during 2011. In the years to come we expect that it will increase up to around 120.”

The European Parliament voted last year to establish authorities in London, Paris and Frankfurt to regulate the banking, securities and insurance industries respectively, which would have the power to mediate between national supervisors and write rules that apply across the EU.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Moshinsky in Brussels at bmoshinsky@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net