Elisa Ferreira: Banking Union - crossing an unstable bridge

Panel contribution by Ms Elisa Ferreira, Vice-Governor of the Bank of Portugal, at the CIRSF (Research Center on Regulation and Supervision of the Financial Sector) Annual International Conference 2019 "Financial Supervision and Financial Stability Ten Years After the Crisis: Achievements and Next Steps", Lisbon, 4 July 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to participate in this panel.

Setting the scene

I recognise we have made big strides forward in setting up the first two pillars of Banking Union. However, the political will to complete it has weakened - as highlighted by the last Eurogroup meeting - with a fully-fledged EDIS still far off.ii

As economic conditions have improved, a false sense of security has emerged while we are still half-way across the bridge. This is exactly the topic I propose for today's discussion.

As it stands, banks continue to be 'European in life but national in death', as supervisory and resolution decisions are mostly European, whereas the ultimate guarantor of financial stability remains national.