Poland skeptical about banking union proposals
September 13, 2012
Poland has doubts concerning banking union proposals by the European Commission, as they offer no direct impact on the decision making process to the non-eurozone countries financial market regulator KNF deputy head Wojciech Kwasniak said in a statement.
"[Our] substantial doubts are tied to the assumption that the countries outside of the euro zone, including Poland, would be deprived of participation in the system on equal rights," Kwasniak said.
Poland's complaints: no automatic influence on decisions taken, no possibility of local banks taking advantage of ECB assistance or capitalization from the ESM.
On the other hand, Poland praised the proposal of imposing ECB supervision over the largest European banks.
On Wednesday the European Commission announced the proposed new ECB powers regarding banking sector supervision, according to which ECB is to take over ultimate responsibility for financial stability of all euro zone banks with national regulators helping to prepare and implement ECB decisions.
Non-euro countries will be able to join the mechanism on a voluntary basis, the European Commission statement read.
The mechanism should come into force starting in 2013, with ECB taking over supervision of any banks which received or requested public funding as of January 2013. In case of banks of major systemic importance ECB will become the regulator as of July 2013, while the rest of banks will fall under its supervision as of January 2014.