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A lot happened in 2022. How was it for ECB Banking Supervision?
In one sense, 2022 was a year in which we went from one crisis to another. At the beginning of the year, all signs pointed to a steady recovery from a pandemic that had turned our lives and economies upside down. I vividly remember that, for the first time in a long while, banks and analysts were looking to the near future with some optimism, which was just when Russia unjustifiably invaded Ukraine. First and foremost, Russia’s war has put Ukrainians through untold suffering. It has also brought economic and financial turmoil to Europe and right across the globe, gradually turning into a fully fledged macroeconomic shock.
We had to react quickly and be agile in our supervision in order to address the fast-changing economic circumstances and the resulting challenges for the banking sector. A handful of banks were affected directly by the war and sanctions, owing to their direct exposures to or interlinkages with Russia. But all banks alike were prone to being adversely affected by the energy and commodity shock, as well as by the environment of persistently high inflation coupled with the fast-paced normalisation of monetary policy.
Yet, in another sense, it was a year of development for ECB Banking Supervision. Our staff went back to working in the office more regularly, and it has been a real pleasure to see our offices buzz with activity once again. I have enjoyed chairing more in-person Supervisory Board meetings and I was very happy to be able to visit several national competent authorities in person.
We also made some good progress towards greater integration between the ECB and the national competent authorities that participate in the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). We are further fostering a common SSM culture and integrated career paths, creating opportunities for supervisors to work more closely throughout the supervisory cycle, pursuing more coordinated planning and budgeting, further developing SSM tools for collaboration and introducing common technologies for both supervision and training...
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