Supervisory colleges are designed to promote enhanced cooperation between authorities responsible for the supervision of banking group entities located in different jurisdictions.

The main objective of supervisory colleges is three-fold:

• sharing information on the overall situation of groups, in order to allow for a common assessment of their risk profile and solvency;
• aligning practices on the application of prudential regulation across different entities belonging to the same group;
• coordinating supervisory actions, among other duties in the context of on-site inspections.

In the banking sector

In the banking sector, the functioning of supervisory colleges is governed by the CRD IV, supplemented by several EBA guidelines. For banking groups within the euro area, joint supervisory teams replaced the colleges of supervisors. Under the aegis of the ECB, these teams bring together supervisors from the euro area countries in which the bank considered established an entity. The ECB also replaces national competent authorities in international boards dedicated to these banking groups.

In the insurance sector

In the insurance sector, the first supervisory colleges (then called the “Coordination Committees ") were created in 2000, following the signature of the Collaboration Protocol (the “Helsinki Protocol ") between the supervisory authorities in the European Union, with regard to the application of Directive 98/78/EC on the supplementary supervision of insurance undertakings in an insurance group.

The Solvency II Directive, which entered into force on 1 January 2016, makes its implementation mandatory as part of its provisions specific to the supervision of groups.

EIOPA has published several guidelines on the operating functioning of colleges of supervisors.

Colleges of supervisors play a key role in the prudential supervision of insurance groups, particularly in the validation of their respective internal models.