It is a pleasure to welcome you to the fifth ECB Forum on Banking Supervision. Ten years ago, on 15 October 2013, the EU Council approved the regulation launching the Single Supervisory Mechanism. It was the most significant step in European integration since the introduction of the euro. And there were two main reasons for taking it. First, it would lead to stricter and more uniform supervision – a single supervisor enforcing a single set of rules for a single banking market. That would, in turn, make it possible to establish a true banking union, with a common safety net. And a banking union would strengthen the ... (full story)