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French financial regulators have unexpectedly intervened in local convergence with international accounting standards. In March 2002, the European Council in Barcelona reaffirmed its willingness to converge financial services by 2003 and implement an effective globalization of the capital markets by 2005. Subsequent calls for European listed companies to harmonize their financial reporting were enacted the same year when the European Commission approved Regulation 1606–2002. Pressure on listed companies reached a new height when, quite unexpectedly, the French stock market regulator, the Commission des Opérations de Bourse, and the supervisory arm of the Banque de France, the Commission Bancaire, jointly published new recommendations on the appropriate accounting treatment of deconsolidation structures and asset sales.sales.