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Several large banking groups have also relocated their activities to the euro area. This has increased the overall complexity and size of directly supervised banks.
Two of the changes were the result of the annual assessment of significance. Barclays Bank Ireland was newly classified as significant and will be directly supervised by the ECB from 1 January 2019. This follows a request by the Central Bank of Ireland, which anticipates an expansion of the bank’s activities due to Brexit. Meanwhile, Permanent tsb Group Holdings plc is no longer on the list of banks directly supervised by the ECB after not meeting any of the significance criteria for three consecutive calendar years. The Central Bank of Ireland will start supervising the bank as of 1 January 2019.
Five banks were removed from the list of ECB supervised banks over the past year because the banks in question have ceased to exist: Nordea Bank AB (publ), Suomen sivuliike after its parent Nordea Bank AB (publ) merged into Nordea Bank Abp, Danske Bank Plc when it transferred its business to its parent Danske Bank A/S, VTB Bank (Austria) AG after its business was transferred to VTB Bank (Europe) S.E., and Banco Mare Nostrum, S.A. after it merged into Bankia, S.A. In addition, the ECB withdrew the license of Cyprus Cooperative Bank Ltd.
Five other banks were newly placed under the direct supervision of the ECB during the same period. In Ireland, a subsidiary of Bank of America Merrill Lynch was newly classified as significant following a request by the Central Bank of Ireland in anticipation of an increase in the bank’s total assets, thereby placing it under direct supervision of the ECB. The new formation of the Luminor Group added Luminor Bank AS in Estonia and Luminor Bank AS in Latvia to the list of significant institutions, while Banque Internationale à Luxemburg S.A. will be directly supervised by the ECB after its split from Precision Capital S.A. and Nordea Bank Abp was granted a new license in Finland after relocating its headquarters there from Sweden.
The list of banks that are directly supervised by the ECB reflects a cut-off date of 14 December 2018.