Brussels, 03/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - On the fringes of the Competitiveness Council on Monday 2 December, the EU Council of Ministers reached a cooperation and exchange of information agreement with the European Central Bank (ECB) for the future single supervision mechanism (SSM) for banks.
The agreement in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) requires the ECB to report to ministers when it starts directly supervising the 130 big banks in the eurozone in November 2014. The chair of the bank supervisory board to be set up at the ECB in order to hive off bank supervision from monetary policy will discuss confidential decisions twice a year at Eurogroup hearings. Non-euro countries will be able to join the discussions.
From now until November 2014, the ECB will issue quarterly reports on preparations for introducing the SSM mechanism, covering the practical arrangements for separating off bank supervision and monetary policy, cooperation between national and EU bodies and obstacles encountered by the ECB, which is also to carry out in-depth assessments of the balance sheets of the 130 big banks it is to supervise directly (see EUROPE 10949).
The agreement covers the appointment procedure for the chair of the bank supervision board, and is very similar to the cooperation and exchange of information agreement already negotiated by the ECB with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 10938). The European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee will give the go-ahead on Thursday 5 December to the appointment of Danièle Nouy of France as the chair of the supervisory board, following a successful hearing at the end of November (see EUROPE 10972). (MB/transl.fl)