On 30 September 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) published the "Guide to Banking Supervision", for the implementation of the single supervisory mechanism (SSM), the new system of financial supervision planned by the Banking Union.

The SSM, established as a response to the lessons learnt in the financial crisis, is based on commonly agreed principles and standards and promotes the single rulebook approach to the prudential supervision of credit institutions in order to enhance the robustness of the euro area banking system.

The guide describes the functioning of the single supervisory mechanism (MVU), which will be launched officially on November 4 2014, specifically explain the distribution of tasks between the ECB and national authorities, the decision-making process and operating structure of the SSM.

The ECB is publishing this guide before it takes over its supervisory tasks (on 4 November 2014) to provide practical guidance and to support stakeholders in their preparation.

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK, webpage (https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html)

ECB, “Guide to banking supervision”

(https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/othe/ssmguidebankingsupervision201409en.pdf?85e39f5cf761e11147f6e828cd4088b1)

Editor: Giovanni AVERSA