The centrepiece of the supervision of significant banks will be the Joint Supervisory Teams, responsible for the day-to-day oversight of these banks. These teams will be made up of specialists from the ECB and from the national authorities, under the leadership of a coordinator designated by the ECB, and a sub-coordinator designated by the national supervisor. Approximately 75% of those making up the teams will be drawn from and designated by the national supervisors; in the case of Spanish banks, it will of course be staff from the Banco de España. Inspection visits to significant banks, what is known as on-site inspection, will continue to be conducted by the national authorities, and their results will be passed onto the ECB for the adoption of the appropriate measures. With regard to the less significant banks, national authorities will continue to directly supervise them as they have to date. Over 3,600 banks across the euro area are involved here. The ECB will define common practices and criteria, it will monitor the actions and position of these banks and it will always be entitled, if it considers it necessary, to re-claim direct supervision over any of these banks. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  The competences and responsibilities of the Banco de España in the framework of the new Mechanism I would now like to address the competences and responsibilities of the Banco de España, as a national supervisor, under the new Mechanism.
The banks of the countries participating in the SSM have been divided into two groups of significant and less significant institutions. The ECB will exert “direct supervision” over the former; as regards the latter, it merely assumes “indirect supervision” functions, as the national authorities will in fact continue to be responsible for their effective supervision. A list of 120 significant banking groups has been drawn up, accounting for approximately 85% of euro area bank assets. 15 of these are Spanish groups, representing around 90% of the assets of our country’s deposit institutions. It should be borne in mind that when we talk about 120 groups, we are referring to consolidated groups; that is to say, the number of individual banks is far higher. In total there are 1,244 individual institutions, which is essentially explained by the importance of cooperative banks in certain euro area countries, in particular France, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland. To directly supervise the significant banks, the ECB has created two directorate generals, which shall perform the continuous monitoring of the 120 groups. DG I will supervise the 30 biggest banks in terms of balance sheet and activities, while DG II will cover the remaining 90 significant banks. However, the supervision of specific aspects or matters, what is known as on-site inspection, will be carried out by different teams. The ECB has thus adopted a different model to that place at the Banco de España to date: functionally separating the continuous monitoring of banks and inspection visits.