In an effort to minimise such conflicts of interest, a governance structure has been put in place to limit the Governing Council’s involvement in supervisory decisions. Speaking personally, I have my doubts whether this set-up will truly help to prevent a clash between the ECB’s monetary policy mandate and its role as a banking supervisor.
You will most likely have explored this issue in much greater depth early on today. As I mentioned earlier, the SSM is only the first pillar of the European banking union. The second is the European Single Resolution Mechanism which will deal with future bank failures. This mechanism has been operational since 1 January 2016.