Speakers
Objectives
Objectives
The objective of this session is to assess whether the current reform agenda of the EBA and ECB is effectively capable of preserving a diverse, competitive and sustainable European banking ecosystem. Beyond formal proportionality, the discussion will examine whether supervisory practices are becoming genuinely sensitive to different business models, including cooperative, mutualist, regional and mid-sized banks, and whether they provide sufficient strategic flexibility for institutions to grow, digitalise and evolve without facing regulatory discontinuities.
The session will also explore the structural forces reshaping the European banking landscape — in particular digitalisation, open finance, the digital euro, fintech expansion and the growing role of big-tech and non-bank platforms. Participants will consider whether these developments reinforce scale effects and convergence dynamics, or whether they can also enable new forms of diversity. The interaction between prudential supervision, competition policy and digital regulation will be central to this reflection.
Finally, the debate will aim to identify the key priorities that the European Commission’s 2026 banking agenda should draw from these discussions. Beyond capital and supervisory reforms, what broader policy choices are needed to ensure that banking diversity remains compatible with financial stability, innovation, competitiveness and deeper financial integration within an incomplete Banking Union.
Points of discussion
- To what extent are recent regulatory and supervisory reforms sufficient to preserve diversity in banking models in Europe?
- In an increasingly digital and still fragmented banking market, what policies are needed — beyond prudential reforms alone — to preserve banking diversity in Europe?