These numbers show that even before the results are announced, the comprehensive assessment is delivering on its objective of repairing and strengthening banks’ balance sheets as the ECB takes on its new supervisory responsibilities. But tonight, I would like to look beyond Sunday to the bigger picture surrounding the comprehensive assessment.
What some perceive as a burdensome exercise, analysing very technical aspects of bank balance sheets, is in reality a display of the ambition to create a more integrated financial market in Europe. The comprehensive assessment is an important prerequisite and foundation for the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), which will start operating on 4 November. Together, they constitute a sea change in Europe’s banking markets.