Luxembourg, 14/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 October, EU member states' representatives to the EU on the Coreper committee gave the go-ahead to draft legislation to introduce the new bank supervision mechanism for the eurozone under the aegis of the European Central Bank (ECB).
On Tuesday, the ECOFIN Council will give the final nod to the new EU rules dividing up bank supervision amongst national and EU level by amending the operating rules for the European Banking Authority (EBA) to take account of the transfer of powers to the ECB to directly supervise some 130 big banks in the eurozone.
Upon arrival in Luxembourg, Jörg Asmussen of the ECB Executive Board said he had high hopes that the ECOFIN Council would approve the legal basis of the single bank supervision mechanism, another step in the slow but continuous progress on all aspects of Banking Union. He said that other preparations could be speeded up once the legal basis was in place, such as recruiting staff and hiring premises. The ECB will see its staff numbers increase by a further 1,000 by this time next year so that it can begin supervising the banks. Many of the new staff are meant to be detached national experts from member states' supervisory bodies.
The United Kingdom has lifted its parliamentary reservation that was preventing the final approval of the legislation (see EUROPE 10941). It has managed to get the Council of Ministers to issue a political statement promising not to alter the EBA's rules at a later date, so they remain those amended with adoption of the single bank supervision mechanism rules. The statement will be included word for word in the conclusions document to be published at the European Summit in Brussels in late October.
From the date on which the bank supervision legislation has been published in the EU's Official Journal, the ECB will have a year to prepare for becoming the eurozone's bank supervisory body in November 2014. It will prepare for this by carrying out a detailed analysis of the 130 banks that will come directly under its remit. (MB/transl.fl)