After months of negotiations, European Parliament is poised to move forward this week with a single banking supervisor to oversee the Eurozone’s biggest banks.
Known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the initiative consists of the establishment of a single banking supervisory authority to oversee the 150 largest banks in the eurozone. The new authority would be housed under the European Central Bank, with its membership comprised of ECB representatives and national regulators. The goal is to have the new authority operational by the end of 2014. In addition to direct supervision of the largest banks, the SSM would also allow for the review of member states’ regulators regarding smaller banks’ supervision.
