and would validate and authorise internal models, approve capital and liquidity allocations, decide about on - site inspections. in short, the lead supervisor would have full supervisory responsibility. the role of host supervisors would be as advisers in a college of supervisors. however, host supervisors would have no formal power. also, when it comes to financial stability and crisis management, the lead supervisor would only have a national mandate. thus, there would still be a need for cross - border regulatory cooperation. the second alternative, which is put forward by the two authors, is to give the home supervisor the role of lead supervisor with an eu mandate. the lead supervisor would work as in the efr model, with the difference that the lead supervisor is given a “ european mandate to ensure that the interests of all depositors / countries are taken into account ”. in this model there is a decision - making agency of european financial supervisors at the centre, which is delegating the task of supervision to each respective home supervisor. regarding financial stability issues, the home country central bank would also be involved, acting on behalf of the european system of central banks ( escb ). the third alternative is both the most obvious and the most radical and would be to create a european financial supervisor ( for example put forth by breuer ). this simply means having one authority acting with full supervisory powers over branches and subsidiaries of cross - border european banks. the system could be tiered ( like in the us ) in the sense that the eu supervisor would only be responsible for banks and banking groups with significant cross - border operations, while purely domestic banks could remain the responsibility of the national supervisors. oosterloo and schoenmaker ( 2004 ), “ a lead supervisor model for europe ”, the financial regulator, vol. 9. 3, 34 - 42. a european financial supervisor all three of these alternatives, even the first one, are considerably more far - reaching than what is currently under construction. i do not think many authorities find the first alternative with a lead supervisor very appealing. it addresses the problem only from the cross - border bank ’ s perspective of minimising the regulatory burden. this is important but does not solve the underlying conflicts of interest between the home and the host countries. in short, it is a model which will only work in normal times when the weather is nice, if even then. the second alternative – the lead supervisor with an eu mandate – seems nice in theory and

maurice o'connell : the euro changeover in the irish context statement by mr maurice o'connell, governor of the central bank of ireland, to the irish parliamentary joint committee on finance and the public service, in dublin on 18 july 2001. * * * chairman we are now less than six months away from the launch of euro banknotes and coin, three years after the introduction of the euro as a currency. the period of transition has been very long but this has been unavoidable because of the complex production and distribution process that is required. the st euro will at last become a fully fledged currency on 1 january. for the first time the public in general will be able to relate to it as their own currency. this should have a very positive impact in terms of gaining acceptance of the new currency. the changeover is a big undertaking for all countries of the euro area. the individual national central banks have worked closely together through the european system of central banks. there has been regular monitoring of production to ensure uniform quality of banknotes across the euro area. the overall production requirement for launch of the new currency is 15 billion banknotes and 50 billion coins. these figures are so large as to be almost incomprehensible. each national central bank is charged with the responsibility of meeting requirements in its own country. in our case this means that we will provide more than 200 million banknotes and more than 1, 000 million coins. members of this committee will be familiar already with the banknote and coin denominations and the conversion rate against the irish pound. may i remind you that the smallest coin ( one cent ) will have a value of less than a penny and the largest banknote ( 500 euro ) will have a value close to £400. traditionally the demand for high value banknotes in this country has been quite small. the central bank of ireland has three main functions in relation to the changeover : · it must provide sufficient quantities of the new currency to meet the launch requirement and ongoing demand · it must provide sufficient quantities of irish currency right up to the end of this year and meet the peak christmas demand · it must withdraw the old currency after 1 january in an orderly manner. st the central bank is on course in the production of new banknotes and coin. frontloading of coin to bank branches and major retailers will begin in september and frontloading of banknotes will begin in november. contracts for distribution are being negotiated. for security reasons i would not wish to go into