With great efforts on the part of the authorities and banks involved, we have submitted the assessment of the bank portfolios to a unified assessment scheme. The asset quality review has given us a deeper insight into the banks’ 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  procedures, thereby making it possible for us to check which differences between banks are justified and to ascertain where we need to probe critically. We will use the knowledge that we have obtained through the peer group review for other supervisory activities as of 4 November. Thus far, these processes have been carried out at the national level. We are now going to harmonise them throughout the euro area, thereby making it easier to compare the respective risk situations of banks, thus enabling us to target our supervisory activities better. Federal structure – central decision-making Critical voices have warned us in the past about losing sight of the diversity of the European banking sector and wanting to typify a “European” bank. I admit that, in the process of harmonising and centralising decision-making powers, there is always also a danger of seeing everything at par. The ECB is, however, protected from such developments by institutional barriers. As national supervisory authorities participate in the supervisory process, the ECB remains close to regional market and banking structures. Moreover, the ECB’s staff will take a keen look at the business models and risk profiles of each directly supervised bank.
The heads of Joint Supervisory Teams will come from a country other than that in which the institution it is supervising is established. “In concrete terms: the head supervisor for Deutsche Bank will be a French lady; BNP Paribas will be supervised by an Italian man.” *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, In precisely two months’ time, we will usher in a new era in the euro area. With the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) on 4 November 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) will assume key competencies in the field of banking supervision. However, unlike the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins in 2002, this step towards further integration will not entail a major symbolic change that is tangible for all citizens. Nevertheless, the start of the SSM means progress, not only in European integration, but also in day-to-day supervisory work. The ECB – one of the world’s largest supervisors The ECB will take on the direct supervision of around 120 credit institutions and more than 80% of the aggregated balance sheet for the euro area banking sector. In absolute figures, this means a total of more than € trillion as per 30 June 2014. In addition, the ECB will be indirectly supervising the less significant institutions, of which there are just over 3,500. Here, we will shape supervision by setting binding supervisory standards. This will make the ECB one of the world’s largest supervisors.