The Commission (DG Competition) decided in June 2005 to open sector inquiries into two areas of the financial services sector: retail banking and business insurance. The instrument has its legal basis in Article 17 of Regulation 1/2003, according to which the Commission may conduct an inquiry into a particular sector of the economy or into particular types of agreements across various sectors, where the trend of trade between Member States, the rigidity of prices or other circumstances suggest that competition may be restricted or distorted within the common market. Those inquiries have an exploratory purpose but their conclusions may lead to individual inquiries by the Commission or national competition authorities.