european parliament approved the srm regulation in april. in addition, deposit insurance schemes will be strengthened and harmonised as part of the banking union in the long run. the banking union may also be complemented by structural reforms. the european commission has made a legislative proposal based on the liikanen report and it will be finalised under the term of the next european parliament. in the future, the banking union, when properly implemented, will help us resolve banking problems while avoiding to use taxpayers ’ money for bail - outs. this in turn means also better incentives in banking and hence a more stable financial system. preparations for single supervisory mechanism let me now share with you some recent developments in the single supervisory mechanism ( ssm ). the eu regulation assigning supervisory tasks to the ecb became effective in early november 2013. already well ahead of this time in late summer 2012, the ecb and national supervisors established the high - level group which steered practical preparations to ensure timely adoption of supervisory responsibilities by the ssm. thus we have got a “ flying start ” for the whole project. as a concrete step, the ecb governing council nominated ms daniele nouy for chair of the supervisory board of the new single supervisory mechanism. the heads of directorates, four director generals have been appointed and most of the mid - level managers have been nominated as well. a broader recruitment process of supervisors and analyst is under way and they will join the ecb in waves by the end of the year. bis central bankers ’ speeches the supervisory board had its historical first meeting in january and now on it meets twice a month. at the beginning many of the issues have related to accepting, confirming and further developing the issues prepared by the high - level group. now there is an on - going transition period, during which a comprehensive assessment of significant banks is carried out. during the same period other preparations for the ssm are to be completed. comprehensive assessment the comprehensive assessment of european banks is an essential element of the preparations for the ssm. it should be noted that the ssm regulation also enables the ecb not only to obtain all the relevant information from the national authorities necessary for making the assessment but also to take over direct supervision of any credit institution it deems necessary. this is important to guarantee consistent application of high supervisory standards. the comprehensive assessment has three main goals. first of all, the assessment aims at transparency through enhancing the quality of information available on the condition of banks. its second goal is to

the integrated structures of banking business in the real world. before i continue to the banking union, i would like to recall ideas that stefan ingves raised in 2006 “ i propose the establishment of a new pan - european body, a european organization for financial supervision ( eofs ). the idea is to create a separate agency to follow the major cross - border banking groups in europe ”. “ the eofs should only focus on the presently about 40 truly cross - border banking groups and not deal with the about eight thousand european banks with a predominately national character. ” bis central bankers ’ speeches “ the eofs should have three tasks : it should gather information about the banking groups and their activities in different countries. importantly, it should also create unified risk - assessments of each cross - border banking group. finally, it should also oversee the activities and risks of these banking groups. ” “ to achieve these tasks, there is a need for a separate agency, staffed with a sufficient number of competent employees. initially, these employees could of course be recruited from the existing national supervisors. also the staff of the eofs would have to cooperate with the national supervisors. ” at the moment, after eight years and severe crises, we are taking steps pretty much towards the direction proposed by stefan. however, he also mentioned that the authority should be independent and not the ecb or the european commission, but as we know according to the current eu - treaties this was not a feasible option.. the european union is now taking a significant step forward by establishing the single supervisory mechanism for the euro area and the non - euro area member states have a possibility to join in the form of “ close co - operation ”. therefore, it may be fair to ask whether we someday see sweden to join the single supervisory mechanism. banking union as part of the economic and monetary union and as a remedy for the crisis, the eu leaders agreed in june 2012 on creating a true banking union. the single rulebook provides a foundation for the banking union. it is based on the idea of identical regulatory requirements, such as capital adequacy rules for banks. these are achieved through european legislation and lower - level technical standards. one of the main pillars of the banking union is the single supervisory mechanism. i will come back to the recent developments in its construction later on. another important pillar is the single resolution mechanism. as you know, intensive talks in the form of eu trilogue ended in march and