Another benefit of the SSM – and perhaps a more important one – will be the lack of “hidden barriers” to cross-border activity linked to national preferences. With a European supervisor, borders will not matter. Issues such as protecting national champions or supervisory ringfencing of liquidity will not be relevant.
This means that banks will be in a better position to achieve the economies of scale that were promised by the single financial market – and that they also need to be competitive at the global level. It is of course for banks to decide whether such integration makes business sense.