Unlocking the Banking Union : the endgame of simplification

Key takeways

• The robustness of the European banking system – shaped by more than a decade of SSM and SRM – should now be used to underpin an ambitious simplification of supervision and regulation.
   
•  Simplification must rest on clear principles: uphold the EU’s adherence to international standards; avoid US style ‘tailoring’ deregulation; and focus on areas where the EU framework is overly complex.
   
• Today’s political momentum should be converted into concrete changes that make supervision more agile, streamline EU-specific layers of requirements, and deepen the Banking Union.
   
• Genuine simplification will become a reality in the EU when supervisors no longer need to think about a bank’s nationality, and when a European citizen can readily borrow from a bank based in another Member State.