1. Equivalence decisions are a commonly used instrument in the EU strategy for financial markets. Scattered throughout EU financial legislative acts of all stripes, there exist approximately 40 provisions that allow the Commission to adopt equivalence decisions, on the basis of which the Commission has issued more than 280 equivalence decisions in respect of more than 30 countries. See EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Communication from the Commission: Equivalence in the area of financial services;COM,2019
2. A narrowly framed rule-by-rule assessment would or could virtually never lead to the conclusion that there exists equivalence because it is highly implausible that different jurisdictions will have the exact same rules;European Commission;Commission staff working document: EU equivalence decisions in financial services policy: an assessment,2007
3. EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Communication from the Commission: Equivalence in the area of financial services;European Commission;Commission staff working document: EU equivalence decisions in financial services policy: an assessment,2017
4. The Commission primarily views its equivalence decisions as a tool to protect internal EU financial stability, while market access for third country institutions is not a determinative parameter;European Commission;Communication from the Commission: Equivalence in the area of financial services,2017