On Monday 21 October, the European Banking Authority (EBA) announced the renewal of its Banking Stakeholder Group (BSG). According to the EBA, this group has the role of facilitating consultation and dialogue with stakeholders in all the areas relevant to the tasks of the EBA. EBA is an independent European Union Authority which works to ensure effective and consistent prudential regulation and supervision across the European banking sector. Established on the 1st of January 2011, its main task is to contribute to the creation of the European Single Rulebook and also to promote the convergence of supervisory practices . As part of the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS), EBA is mandated to assess risks and vulnerabilities in the European Union banking sector.
In order to help facilitate consultation with stakeholders, the EBA appoints 30 members to its Banking Stakeholder Group with the aim of having a balanced and proportional representation between credit and investment institutions operating in the Union, their employees’ representatives as well as consumers and users of financial services and representatives of SME’s.
EuroFinUse and its members organisations can now count with three members: Jean Berthon (FAIDER, France), Javier Contreras (ADICAE, Spain) and Ernesto Fiorillo (Consumatori Associati, Italy), who will all be representing the consumers’ interests. Although the balance has been somewhat redressed, in part thanks to protests from the consumer side, EuroFinUse still believes the representation of end-users can still be significantly improved in future compositions of the BSG.