EU Council and Parliament Reach Agreement Over SSM

On 18 April 2013, the EU Council published a press release confirming that agreement had been reached with the EU Parliament on the establishment of the single supervisory mechanism (SSM) with respect to EU credit institutions.

The European Central Bank (ECB) will be responsible for administration of the SSM, but national supervisors will retain responsibility for takes not conferred on the ECB, such as consumer protection, money laundering, payment services and branches of third country banks.  The ECB will assume its supervisory role with respect to the SSM either on 1 March 2013 or 12 months after entry into force of the legislation, whichever is later to occur.