EU Bank Regulator Plans Rapid Efficiency Push, Ettl Says

(Bloomberg) -- The European Banking Authority is planning to boost the efficiency of regulation and give more discretion to watchdogs who oversee lenders.

There’s “reason to re-check” existing rules and find ways to make them “more applicable, better understandable,” EBA Vice Chairperson Helmut Ettl said at a conference in Vienna on Tuesday. He also proposed giving “more discretion” to supervisors instead of regulating “everything in every detail.”

The EBA plans to publish 21 proposals at the end of this month and expects to achieve first results by the end of the year, Ettl said. Most of the proposals could be implemented in cooperation with the European Commission within the next year, he said.

Europe is seeking to reduce the regulatory burden on banks as the US roll back rules, which has fueled concerns about the bloc’s eroding competitiveness. While some regulators are open to the idea, they’re also wary of scrapping rules that they see as ensuring financial stability.

The work of a high-level task force of central bankers has garnered the most attention, yet Bloomberg News has reported that a key proposal has proved contentious and that some officials say it would take years to implement.

The EBA’s work would achieve results quickly because it wouldn’t require changes to underlying legislation, known as Level 1, said Ettl, who is also co-head of Austria’s financial regulator. Instead, the EBA is planning to review so-called Level 2 and 3 rules, which it sets, he said, adding that some of these were written 14 or 15 years ago.

While the EBA’s proposals still need to be discussed with various stakeholders, “we hope that we can really deliver a jump forward on this,” Ettl said at the conference in Vienna.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.