Strengthening mutual trust between European financial supervisors

Abstract

This paper posits the view that mutual trust between national financial supervisors in the EU is presently weak. This has an impact on the level of cooperation and coordination between these supervisors, resulting in barriers to cross-border business and failures in the supervision of cross-border financial group structures. The central argument of the paper is that these serious concerns may be addressed if mutual trust between national financial supervisors is strengthened through specific measures, such as: (i) broader and better initiatives for supervisory convergence, including convergence of the institutional models for national financial supervision, preferably by more direct involvement of central banks in micro-prudential and conduct supervision; and (ii) the setting up of a European Academy for Financial Supervisors.