banks ’ quality of capital. with regard to methodology, we plan to develop our srep methodology for liquidity risk. with the priorities set now, we will start to draw up the 2016 working plan for each banking group in detail. this will happen in december ; thus banks will have to wait for at least another month to get an insight into what kind of supervisory activities ( for instance thematic meetings, onsite inspections or surveys ) are relevant for the interaction with their supervisor in 2016. but one thing is for sure : 2016 will be a busy year for euro area banks as well as their supervisor. as i do not want to keep us any longer from enjoying our dinner, allow me to briefly conclude. what remains is my wish for next year : on the second anniversary, i hope that one or two of the same well - wishers will repeat their praise! i am convinced that the ssm staff at the national supervisory authorities and at the ecb will continue their excellent work, as they have been doing in 2015, and that we should be even further down the road of becoming a truly european supervisor – one which can contribute, to the greatest degree possible, to a safe and sound banking system in the euro area and one which ensures a level playing field. and i also hope that we will have implemented our plan and thus fulfilled this year ’ s wish for greater transparency. bis central bankers ’ speeches

the ssm, which includes overseeing about 3, 500 less significant institutions. the total assets under ssm supervision amount to more than €26 trillion. ssm supervision is conducted by thousands of supervisors across europe, most of whom work for the 26 national supervisory authorities. the last 12 to 18 months were marked by a whole series of measures, including : • recruiting more than 1, 000 ecb supervisors and support staff ; bis central bankers ’ speeches • setting up central supervisory infrastructures ; • carrying out the comprehensive assessment and translating the results into supervisory actions ; • developing and implementing the ssm ’ s legal and methodological framework ; • setting up the joint supervisory teams and establishing a consistent and standardised database ; • identifying key risks within europe ’ s banking sector, drawing up our strategic plan for 2015 and planning our supervisory activities accordingly ; • enhancing our supervisory methodology further, in particular regarding the supervisory review and evaluation process ( srep ) ; • harmonising supervisory approaches and perspectives, going beyond options and national discretions ; • gaining an overview of the 19 national banking sectors with their 3, 500 less significant banks ; and • conducting day - to - day supervision of the 123 banking groups with 1, 100 directly supervised banks. all in all, in our first year of operation we have laid the foundation for tough and fair supervision. and i am satisfied with the results we have achieved. but as some of the well - wishers pointed out on our anniversary, there ’ s still room for development and improvement. we must remain vigilant, because banking supervision means keeping our eyes open for trouble – yes, we are paid to worry! the second year of the ssm will also see a lot of fine - tuning of our supervisory approach and methodologies. we will establish further administrative practices for specific topics relating to the banks ’ governance, risk management and internal controls. we will deepen our understanding of national specificities in banking sectors and national legal bases as we have to determine how much scope we have for harmonisation. let me now focus on one particular wish that was repeatedly expressed in the run - up to our anniversary : enhanced transparency regarding the ssm methodologies and concepts, in particular regarding srep. we take transparency seriously. it is closely related to accountability and communication. we need to communicate and be in a dialogue with a number of counterparts : individual banks foremost, other key stakeholders involved in banking supervision, such as banking associations or auditors, parliaments, and, last but not