On 22 March 2018, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a speech by Executive Board Member Sabine Lautenschläger entitled Banking regulation and supervision – you can’t have one without the other.

In her speech Ms Lautenschläger argues that despite the single rulebook banking regulation in the EU remains fragmented and that banking union is not living up to its full potential (although it could if regulatory rules were further harmonised). She also states that there are now global regulatory standards with the finalisation of Basel III but these standards now need to be transposed into hard law. She adds that how effective global rules are depends on how supervisors apply them. She states:

“Supervisors must faithfully apply the rules which transpose the Basel standards. To do so, they need adequate resources and they must be shielded from political interference. And there’s more. There is also a strong case for supervisors from around the world to exchange information, to cooperate and to coordinate. This would help to facilitate strong and effective banking supervision worldwide.”