he Executive Directors of the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), Helmut Ettl and Kurt Pribil, have welcomed the agreement of the European Council and ECOFIN to create a new European structure for banking supervision, under the leadership of the European Central Bank (ECB). “The agreement that has been reached forms the basis for uniform, strong regulation of the banks throughout the euro area, under the leadership of the ECB. It nevertheless ensures that supervision of individual banks is done by the closest authority as possible to each institution, in line with its cross-border relevance. Moreover, thanks to the special rules that have been agreed, we are convinced that the open model of the new supervisory system will also be attractive to those countries in the European Economic Area that are not members of the euro,” stated the FMA Executive Directors. Ettl and Pribil are also convinced that the flexible implementation schedule that has now been established will also allow a seamless transfer of competencies from the national supervisory authorities to the ECB, thereby avoiding the risk of creating supervisory loopholes. “We are happy that this is a breakthrough step on the path towards a new European system of banking supervision under the strong leadership of the ECB. We are already looking forwards to working together, efficiently and effectively. We firmly believe that this step represents a significant contribution to bringing stability to the financial markets and to protecting savers, investors and consumers.”
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43 (0)1 24959 5106
+43 (0)676 882 49 516