31.08.2012
By Simon Miller
Eurozone banks are to gradually come under the remit of a common supervisor, the EU's internal markets commissioner Michel Barnier said today.
The shift is part of a wider agreement between the 17 eurozone members over letting the new eurozone rescue plan directly fund lenders instead of the nation state and all 6,000 lenders will come under the new supervisor on 1 January 2014.
However, there are still arguments inside the eurozone as well as the wider European Union over how fast and how far to centralise the current system of national regulators.
"We never envisaged a global switchover from one day to the next to direct and integrated supervision," Barnier told the French business daily Les Echos.
Banks who received support from the European Stability Mechanism would immediately come under the new regulator which is excepted to begin operations on 1 January 2013.
"From that date, theoretically, the direct recapitalisation of banks by the rescue fund will be possible," added Barnier.
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