Andrew G Haldane: The $ billion question Comments by Mr Andrew G Haldane, Executive Director, Financial Stability, Bank of England, at the Institute of Regulation & Risk, Hong Kong, 30 March 2010. *  *  *  I am grateful to Dele Adeleye, David Aikman, Marnoch Aston, Richard Davies, Colm Friel, Vaiva Katinaite, Sam Knott, Priya Kothari, Salina Ladha, Colin Miles, Rhiannon Sowerbutts and Aron Toth for comments and contributions. The car industry is a pollutant. Exhaust fumes are a noxious by-product. Motoring benefits those producing and consuming car travel services – the private benefits of motoring. But it also endangers innocent bystanders within the wider community – the social costs of exhaust pollution. Public policy has increasingly recognised the risks from car pollution. Historically, they have been tackled through a combination of taxation and, at times, prohibition. During this century, restrictions have been placed on poisonous emissions from cars – in others words, prohibition. This is recognition of the social costs of exhaust pollution. Initially, car producers were in uproar. The banking industry is also a pollutant. Systemic risk is a noxious by-product. Banking benefits those producing and consuming financial services – the private benefits for bank employees, depositors, borrowers and investors. But it also risks endangering innocent bystanders within the wider economy – the social costs to the general public from banking crises. Public policy has long-recognised the costs of systemic risk. They have been tackled through a combination of regulation and, at times, prohibition.

The Heads of State and Government of the European Union committed to a banking union in June 2012. Since then, major steps have been taken, within a very challenging timeframe, to set the basis for common supervision, through the single supervisory mechanism and common resolution arrangements; as for harmonized rules to protect depositors, they are also on the agenda, but the progress is clearly lagging behind. Let me now address each of these three pillars of the Banking Union. Single Supervisory Mechanism Last week the European Council adopted the Regulation establishing a Single Supervisory Mechanism (or SSM). Within one year, the ECB will, together with the national supervisory authorities, assume broad supervisory competences over the whole banking sector of the Euro area and of those other EU countries which decide to opt-in. The ECB will be the central player within this new mechanism. Those credit institutions deemed to be significant according to the criteria laid down in the Regulation will be directly supervised by the ECB with the assistance of the national supervisory authorities, while the rest of the system will be indirectly supervised by the ECB through the national supervisors. In numbers, out of approximately 6,000 credit institutions in the Eurozone, the ECB will directly supervise around 130 banks, covering around 85% of total banking assets. The single mechanism will be based on the idea of centralised supervision, offering a common view for the supervision of the whole sector, while building on the knowledge and expertise which exist at national level.