Financial Times
June 4, 2012
The way in which the Bankia – and other – cases have been managed over the past few weeks confirms that banking supervision in the euro area cannot continue to be implemented in a decentralised way. The incentives of the national authorities to free ride are simply too high and undermine the stability of the entire euro financial system.
The traditional argument put forward in defense of conducting prudential supervision at the national level is that supervisory authorities have to be accountable to taxpayers, who ultimately bear the economic consequences of bank failures. As long as bank rescue operations are financed by taxes collected at the national level, so goes the argument, supervision should remain national.
In a monetary union, however, the decisions taken by a national supervisor impact not only the country’s residents but also the taxpayers and savers of the other countries. Recent events have shown how the uncertainties surrounding the restructuring of Bankia have negatively affected the banking system of the whole euro area and spread to other segments of the financial market, including in countries which had taken action with a view to put their own banking system in order.
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