2014 is a year of change for banking supervision in
Europe. The European Central Bank (ECB), national supervisory
authorities and banks are busy preparing for the Single Supervisory
Mechanism (SSM), which is scheduled to take responsibility for the
prudential supervision of banks in the Eurozone from November
2014.
The current focus of preparations is rightly on getting ready
for the start of the new supervisory regime. But if the SSM is
ultimately to be a success, preparations need to begin now to
tackle the strategic challenges that will become increasingly
important in the medium‑term.
We believe that data and analytics (the technological solutions
and mathematical techniques that support supervisors in analysing
data) should be priorities for strategic investment. They could be
the differentiating factors that determine whether or not the SSM
delivers on the aspirations that have been set for it: to enhance
the quality of supervision and policy making, to
