Europe’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) took a serious step ahead final 12 months to foster cohesion amongst its greater than 7,000 workers members working on the European Central Financial institution (ECB) and nationwide authorities in 21 completely different nations. It did this by launching SSMinternet, a complete digital platform developed in-house, in June 2021. SSMinternet permits workers members to work together with one another, observe the tasks the supervisory system is endeavor, whereas providing coaching and assets on key supervisory matters and country-specific points.
Edouard Fernandez-Bollo
In precisely 9 months, SSMinternet has develop into an essential level of reference. Greater than 90% of workers members are lively customers, with whole visits to the platform having quickly elevated to achieve greater than 150,000 in February 2022. At present, every day visits hover round 800 to 1,000, with peaks of 1,500 distinctive guests. Probably the most searched content material in March contains gadgets similar to anti-money laundering, and Russia or Ukraine, which signifies the platform is getting used to assist present supervisory considerations.
“Our most important problem, being a multinational supervisory mechanism encompassing 21 nations, is easy methods to take care of an enormous wealth of data,” says Edouard Fernandez-Bollo, ECB consultant to the supervisory board. “And this isn’t solely quantitatively complicated, it requires converging supervisory and monetary stability cultures. Our remaining purpose is to make the SSM as an entire operate in a unified approach.”
Even previous to the Covid-19 pandemic, the SSM confronted a tough stability when co-ordinating the actions of groups working remotely on a everlasting foundation. Supervisors must take account of the native context when it comes to the place banks function and carry out on-site features. However on the identical time, the SSM goals to create a degree enjoying subject that delivers predictable supervisory outcomes for banks throughout the continent.
Instrument to foster integration
Cécile Peterka
“The platform permits us to higher co-ordinate the work of supervisory groups working remotely and guarantee information is shared,” says Cécile Peterka, head of part for supervisory functionality constructing on the ECB. “Growing a typical supervisory tradition is essential to make sure quicker supervisory response, higher co-ordination in disaster conditions, simpler entry and consciousness of quantitative instruments, therefore extra intrusive supervision. That is key to protect a degree enjoying subject amongst monetary establishments, and finally to make sure the credibility of the SSM. “
To additional combine supervision, make it extra agile and have the ability to shortly react to new crises such because the coronavirus pandemic or the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the SSM restructured its organisation in 2020–21 to create a horizontal capability. Because of this, as an alternative of getting only one market specialist in each Joint Supervisory Group (JST), groups that supervise one particular financial institution, the ECB has now grouped topic consultants in a horizontal specialist workforce in a position to assist all JSTs when wanted.
On this context, SSMinternet gives an easy-to-use software, a shared house to maintain all members updated.
“We’ve offered a single place for employees to entry the supervisory code stemming from all kinds of sources,” says Fernandez-Bollo. “But it surely’s not solely that you’ve the data at your disposal, it additionally constructions it, it focuses on the data that actually issues for banking supervision.”
Analytical capabilities
SSMinternet is a platform for supervisors made by supervisors. Earlier than the workforce in control of the mission began engaged on the platform, it requested supervisors which have been essentially the most urgent issues they confronted, and which instruments they thought would higher assist them perform their duties.
The result’s a platform structured round three most important pillars. First, the homepage gives a every day movement of reports and data, together with inner and exterior developments on banking supervision, and newsletters on key matters similar to fintech or credit score danger. This discussion board additionally publishes bulletins by supervisory board members on latest actions, in addition to their reflections on present challenges.
Moreover, JSTs get a weekly replace on what the SSM calls horizontal supervisory job requests (HRCTs). This covers the latest actions JSTs have made to the brand new horizontal specialists in core areas similar to danger administration, local weather change and cyber safety. By this space, groups can request assist on these issues.
The homepage additionally permits entry to data on upcoming occasions, workshops and seminars.
The second pillar gives entry to supervisory information, the place workers can use instruments to analyse information or benchmark banks’ efficiency. It additionally gives country-specific data printed by nationwide authorities, in addition to greater than 250 coaching periods and seminars accessible by way of e-learning modules.
This analytical module contains particular information protecting the 115 important banks instantly supervised by the ECB. As an example, workers members can instantly entry particular person banks’ exposures to markets similar to Russia and Ukraine, the evaluation of which may quickly inform supervisory actions that could be wanted at an institutional degree or to know the extent of dangers the present disaster might characterize for the European banking sector as complete.
“Data is our key asset. Training and coaching have a strategic dimension due to the variety of workers, the complexity of our actions and our duty to make sure monetary stability in Europe,” says Peterka.
The third pillar is the connectivity platform that helps workers to make contact with greater than 7,000 colleagues throughout the SSM. This space contains 30 working teams, with consultants from all member states and enterprise areas. Employees may also discover JSTs’ particular person pages, and make contact with their members.
Fernandez-Bollo makes use of SSMinternet each day as a result of it “offers an summary of all our actions I wouldn’t have in any other case”, he says: “It permits me to determine what materials to include into my work when the processes started. It’s a highly effective software to unify our work, and determine priorities throughout our huge community of establishments. It additionally permits us to really feel like a group.”
The Central Banking Awards have been written by Christopher Jeffery, Daniel Hinge, Dan Hardie, Victor Mendez-Barreira, Ben Margulies and Riley Steward