EU parliament approves banking union

The European Parliament Tuesday approved threepieces of legislation which are essential for the establishment of a Banking Union inthe 18-member euro area.Two deal with restructuring and winding down troubled banks, and the thirdensures that banks, not taxpayers, guarantee deposits under 100,000 euro in the event of a bank collapse. European Parliament President Martin Schulz in astatement said "from now on, clear rules to resolve a failing bank will be in placeand the risks for the whole banking system contained." "The European Parliamentsucceeded in fighting off the illogical pressure of some countries during thenegotiations. The Parliament succeeded in defending a fair, efficient, speedy and atruly European mechanism. The Parliament succeeded in safeguarding the interestsof European citizens," he said.On his part, EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier, said"the banking union completes the economic and monetary union, puts an end to the era of massive bail-outs and ensures taxpayers will no longer foot the bill whenbanks face difficulties." "Not only does the banking union help to restore confidencein the banking sector, but it also ensures a truly European system of supervisionand resolution of banks when they fail," he added.As of November 2014, the European Central Bank will be the supervisor of all 6,000banks in the euro area in the framework of the Single Supervisory Mechanism.In the cases when banks fail despite stronger supervision, the recently adoptedSingle Resolution Mechanism (SRM) will allow bank resolution to be managed moreeffectively through a Single Resolution Board (SRB) and a Single Resolution Fund(SRF) of 55 billion euro. If a bank fails, the SRM will be much more effective incarrying out resolutions than the existing different national resolution authorities,argued Barnier.