European Banking Authority


The European Banking Authority is a regulatory agency of the European Union headquartered in La Défense, Île-de-France. Its activities include conducting stress tests on European banks to increase transparency in the European financial system and identifying weaknesses in banks' capital structures.
The EBA has the power to overrule national regulators if they fail to properly regulate their banks. The EBA is able to prevent regulatory arbitrage and should allow banks to compete fairly throughout the EU. The EBA will prevent a race to the bottom because banks established in jurisdictions with less regulation will no longer be at a competitive advantage compared to banks based in jurisdictions with more regulations as all banks will henceforth have to comply with the higher pan European standard.
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History

The EBA was established on 1 January 2011, upon which date it inherited all of the tasks and responsibilities of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors. In continuity with the CEBS secretariat and until 30 March 2019 it was located in London; on that date it relocated to Paris as a consequence of Brexit.
As a consequence of the United Kingdom's planned withdrawal from the EU, the European Commission worked on plans to move the EBA out of the United Kingdom, to keep it inside the remaining EU member states. Future homes considered for the agency were Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw. In the end, Paris was selected by drawing of lots to house the EBA, at 18:40 CET on Monday, 20 November 2017.
In June 2021, the EBA said that banks in the European Union must have a ten-year plan that explains how they will deal with environmental, social, and government risks to their bottom line.

Mission and tasks

The main task of the EBA is to contribute, through the adoption of binding Technical Standards and Guidelines, to the creation of the European Single Rulebook in banking. The Single Rulebook aims at providing a single set of harmonised prudential rules for financial institutions throughout the EU, helping create a level playing field and providing high protection to depositors, investors and consumers.
The Authority also plays an important role in promoting convergence of supervisory practices to ensure a harmonised application of prudential rules. Finally, the EBA is mandated to assess risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector through, in particular, regular risk assessment reports and pan-European stress tests.
Other tasks set out in the EBA's mandate include:
  • investigating alleged incorrect or insufficient application of EU law by national authorities
  • taking decisions directed at individual competent authorities or financial institutions in emergency situations
  • mediating to resolve disagreements between competent authorities in cross-border situations
  • acting as an independent advisory body to the European Parliament, the Council or the Commission.
  • taking a leading role in promoting transparency, simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products or services across the internal market.
To perform these tasks, the EBA can produce a number of regulatory and non regulatory documents including binding Technical Standards, Guidelines, Recommendations, Opinions, Questions and Answers and ad-hoc or regular reports. The Binding Technical Standards are legal acts which specify particular aspects of an EU legislative text and aim at ensuring consistent harmonisation in specific areas. The EBA develops draft BTS which are finally endorsed and adopted by the European Commission. Contrary to other documents such as Guidelines or Recommendations, the BTS are legally binding and directly applicable in all Member States.

Common Reporting Framework

Common Reporting is the standardised reporting framework issued by the EBA for the Capital Requirements Directive reporting. It covers credit risk, market risk, operational risk, own fund and capital adequacy ratios. This reporting framework has been adopted by almost 30 European countries. Regulated institutions are periodically required to file COREP reports, on both a solo and consolidated basis using XBRL in Eurofiling architecture taxonomies. All regulated organisations in the UK must use COREP to make their regular statutory reports from 1 January 2014 onwards.

Board of Supervisors

The national authorities that are voting members of the EBA's Board of Supervisors have been, from creation to early 2024:
The EBA chair has been granted voting status by the 2019 revision of the EBA regulation. Non-voting members include representatives from the European Commission, ECB Supervisory Board, European Systemic Risk Board, European Securities and Markets Authority, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, as well as the supervisory authorities for non-EU members of the European Economic Area, namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. In addition, in countries where the banking supervisor is separate from the central bank, the bank resolution authority, the financial consumer protection authority, and/or the deposit insurance authority, the latter authorities may also attend the meetings of the Board of Supervisors under conditions set in Article 40 of the EBA Regulation. The Single Resolution Board has observer status within the EBA Board of Supervisors, and is also a member of the EBA's permanent Standing Committee on Resolution, known as ResCo. As a result of this setup, neither ECB Banking Supervision nor the Single Resolution Board have a formal vote in the EBA decision-making process.

Leadership

Chairperson:
Vice-Chairperson:
Executive Director: