Brussels, 08/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, has upped pressure on the European institutions to get them to come up with rapid and tangible results on banking union for the eurozone. He was speaking at the European Parliament on Monday 8 July.
“We must act swiftly to reap the benefits of banking union. The stakes are too high” to take a break in the legislative and technical work, said Draghi. He said the ECB was counting on a single supervision mechanism (SSM) being in place by the summer of 2014, and was drawing up a list of big banks that the ECB will supervise directly, deciding on standards for the exchange of information and cooperating with all parties at national and European level, and assessing the capital positions of the banks to be monitored by the ECB directly. He stressed the importance of these assessments, which must be complete by the time the SSM is operational, in order to introduce greater transparency in asset valuation. Countries, he said, “must ensure that financial backstops are available” in case the bank stress tests reveal capital gaps.
SRM. Draghi said the single resolution mechanism was the “next critical pillar that will complement the single supervisory mechanism due to be in place when the SSM is operational. It will be a single authority with a single fund at its disposal”. (MB/transl.fl)