Banking

Národná banka Slovenska as part of the EU’s banking union

The Banking union project is based on the following three pillars:

• the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM)
• the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM)
• an EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme

The Single Supervisory Mechanism is a system of financial supervision that entered into operation on 4 November 2014. It comprises the European Central Bank and the national competent authorities (NCAs) of mainly euro area countries. In Slovakia, the NCA is Národná banka Slovenska (NBS).

For the purposes of the SSM banks (credit institutions) are categorised as:

• significant – subject to direct supervision by the ECB in cooperation with NCAs; or
• less significant – remaining subject to supervision by the respective NCA.

The criteria used to assess whether a credit institution falls within the significant or less significant category are set out in the applicable EU legislation.

The ECB’s official website for banking supervision within the Single Supervisory Mechanism: bankingsupervision.europa.eu

The ECB is in charge of banking authorisations in the euro area, which covers the licensing of banks, withdrawal of banking licences and authorisation of acquisitions of qualifying holdings in banks (known collectively as “common procedures”). This remit also includes “fit and proper” assessments for significant banks, where the ECB assesses whether members of the management body are suitable to perform their role in bank. Further information about common procedures and fit and proper assessments (hereinafter collectively referred to as “SSM procedures”) is published on the ECB Banking Supervision website: https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/banking/tasks/authorisation/html/index.en.html

Banks can submit applications related to SSM procedures, track the status of such procedures, and exchange information with NBS and the ECB via an online platform called the IMAS Portal.

The provision of banking services on the basis of an authorisation granted in another EU Member State (passporting)

Direct supervision by NBS

Banks established in Slovakia and classified as ‘less significant’ remain under the direct supervision of NBS.