The Relationship between the ECB, the EBA and the NCAs in the SSM

The aim of this paper is to analyse the co-ordination of the competences and activities of the ECB, the EBA and the NCAs in the SSM. Firstly, it will evaluate the division of tasks among these authorities and the way in which the ECB is entitled to participate in the decision-making of the EBA. Within this ambit, it will show that the latter plays an active role in the establishment of shared regulatory and supervisory standards and practices. Since the EBA may both identify best practises concerning prudential supervision and develop implementing technical standards, it will try to demonstrate that the EBA has the power to enact legal acts binding on the ECB. Secondly, it will ascertain whether the ECB is subject to the above-mentioned overshadowing and de facto powers of the EBA. It will also detect whether the ECB is subject to the EBA’s decisions in cases where disagreements between NCAs in cross-border situations were settled. Thirdly, it will evaluate whether the ECB is placed, in the relationship with the EBA, at the same level of NCAs and with what consequences. In particular, it will survey whether the decisions that the EBA may make in place of the NCAs, if necessary conditions are met, would be adopted even with regard to the ECB. Fourthly, it will assess whether the unification of the monetary function with that of prudential supervision – through the SSM – and the previous establishment of the EBA, lead to a system that under several profiles appears fragmented, incomplete and incoherent. Finally, it will draw a prospective picture of greater complementarity between the authorities involved.