The SSM will create genuine European supervision, requiring the ECB to take responsibility for ensuring that the European banking sector is sound and safe. In the process of establishing the SSM, we need to further restore the health of the banking sector and confidence in it, thereby creating the conditions for a revival of credit provision to the real economy.
The ECB’s comprehensive assessment is designed for this purpose. At the ECB, we are very conscious of the huge responsibility that we have been asked to shoulder, and this exercise will be executed in a credible and consistent manner. Let me assure you that we will under no circumstances compromise the rigour of the comprehensive assessment.