Brussels, 19/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The president of the supervisory council at the ECB, Danièle Nouy, believes that the national options and margin for discretion built into the European banking prudential rules will make life harder for the supervisors.
“These numerous options for member states and also the flexible implementation of many articles in the Capital Requirement Directive make it very hard to achieve a full Single Rule Book, and the ECB, as a supervisor, may need to follow 19 different standards. This makes our life as supervisors much more difficult and impedes important investment decisions to be taken by the market and the banks”, Nouy said on Monday 19 October, at a public hearing before the economic and monetary affairs committee of the European Parliament. Referring to the example of the 'fit & proper' directive, which lays down minimum harmonisation, she called on the European legislators to tackle this issue “as a priority”.
As direct supervisor of 130 systemic Eurozone banks, the ECB has hit out at the 122 options or discretions granted to the member states and which come under its direct responsibility. Nouy stresses that a draft ECB regulation and an explanatory guide aiming to deal with this issue would be put out for public consultation in November.
Banking structural reform. Sylvie Goulard (ALDE, France) questioned Nouy about the proposed structural banking reform, which is experiencing a “complicated situation” at the European Parliament, as the EPP and S&D groups are struggling to agree on this controversial dossier (see EUROPE 11410). “We feel that the advantage of European text lies in the harmonisation of rules between different European countries and within the single supervision mechanism. The fact that the member states have the option to stick to their national rules is no help at all”, said Nouy. She argued that “better no text at all than a poor one” defining standards “based on what people want to see on arrival”, but which could have unintended consequences. She went on to acknowledge the need to allow the member states a certain amount of discretion to tackle the issue of the major systemic banks, in response to a question put by Jakob von Weizsäcker (S&D, Germany).
The single banking supervisor is currently carrying out an assessment of the assets of nine banks: Banque Degroof SA (Belgium), Agence française de développement (France), J.P. Morgan Bank Luxembourg SA, Mediterranean Bank plc (Malta), Sberbank Europe AG and VTB Bank AG (Austria), Novo Banco SA (Portugal), Unicredit Banka Slovenija d.d. (Slovenia) and Kuntarahoitus Oyj (Finland). We will publish the results of this exercise “in November”, said Nouy. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)