On September 30, 2014, the European Central Bank ("ECB") published a guide to banking supervision which sets out the implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism ("SSM"). The SSM is made up of the ECB and national regulators of euro area countries. The ECB, which will begin its supervisory tasks on November 4, 2014, will be responsible for the functioning of the SSM and will directly prudentially supervise the larger banks within the ECB. National regulators will supervise smaller banks and will be responsible for all other conduct and regulatory supervision of banks and other regulated firms in their jurisdictions. The ECB guide sets out how the SSM will work in practice.

The guide is available at: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/ssmguidebankingsupervision201409en.pdf.

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