Brussels, 22/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - MEPs on the EP's econommc and monetary affairs committee will be discussing two draft reports on Monday evening (by Marianne Thyssen (EPP, Belgium) and Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany)) on the legislation to introduce a common eurozone bank supervisory system.
In response to the call by the European Council for different types of control of the 6,000 or so banks in the eurozone (see EUROPE 10714), Thyssen has suggested a division of labour between national bank supervisory schemes and the European Central Bank (ECB), which has credibility and is supported by most member states to take on the role of the future chief eurozone bank supervisory body. The Frankfurt-based ECB would directly supervise banks that have requested and/or received public financial aid and banks that are too big to fail in line with three criteria - their size, cross-border business and inherent underpinning of the financial system. National supervisory bodies would retain responsibility for monitoring all other eurozone banks.
Right to intervene. Thyssen suggests the ECB should be given the right to intervene in exceptional and well-defined circumstances to take direct supervisory responsibility, where necessary, over any type of bank in a participating member state. Moreover, in order to ensure the system's coherence, the ECB should be able to check that national supervisory bodies are doing their job properly.
Thyssen stresses the importance of making the common bank supervisory scheme attractive to non-euro countries. A surveillance committee should be set up at the ECB to hive off supervisory work from monetary policy, and all countries participating in the new bank supervisory system should have veto rights on the surveillance committee, she says, starting from the time that, as a last resort and in line with the provisions of the treaty, the ECB Governing Council takes legal responsibility for decisions taken by the supervisory committee. (MB/transl.fl)