Such a setback can spark off worries for banks that have lent to economic sectors for which the exchange rate, for instance, is a critical element. Indeed, while micro-surveillance of the banking system remains essential, it needs to be topped up by macro-surveillance mechanisms, including macro-prudential policy measures, aimed at reinforcing the battery of defence mechanisms available to central banks.
This time around, the Commission started to interfere with the minimal changes the ECB had recommended, followed by more extensive changes by the Parliament and yet more by the Council, which even added a new objective to this chapter on monetary functions and operations.