First, in the late 2000s it became clear that the financial sector had to be put on a safer and more resilient footing. To this end, EU legislators adopted the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) in April 2013: this was an essential step towards strengthening the stability of the banking sector and thereby preventing future crisis.
More recently, the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) was agreed upon. To comply with the new rules of the BRRD, banks across the EU will have to develop in a harmonised way recovery plans, cooperate with resolution authorities and make necessary changes to capital holdings, business activities, legal and operating structures. Finally, harmonised standards for deposit guarantee schemes have been introduced.