Europe

Europe: The German Banking Assn, which represents Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, wants the ECB to have the sole responsibility for regulatory supervision in the euro area. EU leaders agreed on Jun 29 to give new banking supervision powers to the ECB as part of a commitment to a banking union and called on the European Commission to outline the changes by Sep. It is unclear how much authority the ECB will get. One option would allow the ECB to take major oversight decisions for all banks, while another would be to give it a core set of central powers to oversee all banks while delegating some tasks to individual countries. The German proposal would mean that Bundesbank would be subordinated to the ECB, serving as country representative of the central bank.