The European Banking Union

The European Banking Union (EBU) is a major development in the design of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), possibly the most important institutional change since the Maastricht Treaty. The EBU is an institutional and substantive administrative framework concerned with the supervision and resolution of credit institutions in the EU. The EBU is composed of two pillars. The Single Supervisory Mechanism is a supranational administrative system of prudential supervision with the European Central Bank (ECB) at the center of the framework. The Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) is a supranational system of resolution as an alternative to winding down procedures for credit institutions in distress and established with the Single Resolution Board (SRB) as the EU agency in charge. The EBU is complemented by a complex body of substantive laws on credit institutions. Overall, the EBU raises a number of constitutional, institutional, administrative and substantive legal issues on its genesis, rationale and functioning.