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07 November 2017

ECB’s Nouy: Around 20 banks applied for EU licences after Brexit


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The European Central Bank’s chief banking supervisor has said that about 20 banks have applied for European banking licences in the wake of the UK’s decision to quit the European Union.


Danièle Nouy, head of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, said that the “very sad” decision by British citizens had led to more work for eurozone supervisors.

“It’s about 20 that have something that is already being assessed,” Ms Nouy said. “Maybe they have not signed it, but they have made a pretty comprehensive application that can be formalised very fast.”

Several Japanese and US banks have already announced plans to increase their presence in Frankfurt, home of the SSM and Germany’s financial centre. The SSM is responsible for granting banking licences for all eurozone member states.

Ms Nouy said at a conference to mark the third anniversary of the creation of the SSM that she expected more cross-border mergers of European banks. “I am an optimistic person so I expect them,” she said, referring to supervisors’ push for Europe to have fewer banks to lower costs.

Ms Nouy also voiced her concern over the rise of nationalism, saying that institutions such as hers needed to make European citizens to see that they served the public good. She welcomed the election of Emmanuel Macron as France’s president. “France is back with a stronger European mind. It is very welcome.”

Ms Nouy said banks should use digitalisation to cut costs. “It could help them to reduce cost to income ratios that are far too high”, she said. But while digitalisation was “changing the world pretty fast”, Ms Nouy was sceptical that robots would begin to take large numbers of bankers’ jobs.

Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)



© Financial Times


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