The Single Supervisory Mechanism will comprise national competent authorities from the euro area as well as the ECB, with the possibility of non-euro area members participating. The scope of the proposed regulation is very broad, covering all of the more than 6,000 credit institutions in the euro area. However, not all of them will fall under the direct responsibility of the ECB.
The ECB will directly supervise those banks and banking groups  1  See Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, Moira Kearney-Marks and James B. Thomson: “The History and Rationale for a Separate Bank Resolution Process”, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  that are considered to be significant.