ECB Annual Report on supervisory activities

towards harmonisation by developing policy stances in cooperation with the NCAs
and relevant <strong>ECB</strong> business areas, with a view to achieving common supervisory
practices for authorisation procedures.
In addition to the policy stances already approved in 2015 (such as those on
reputation, time commitment and collective suitability), further stances were
developed on the use of interviews as a tool for information gathering during fit and
proper assessments, including recommended practices on conducting interviews. Fit
and proper interviews will, as a rule, become mandatory for newly appointed CEO
and chairman positions at significant stand-alone banks and top banks of groups
once <strong>ECB</strong> Banking Supervision has published its Guide to fit and proper
assessments 30 . Policy stances were also developed on (i) the assessments of
candidates’ experience, (ii) the uniform application of conditional approvals, and (iii)
re-assessments. The process for assessing additional non-executive directorships
and the combination of chairman/CEO positions was also covered.
For qualifying holdings, policy stances were developed that focus on the assessment
of the “specific acquirers” as well as on the scope, procedural aspects and format of
the decisions adopted by the <strong>ECB</strong>. Additional work on practices for assessing
qualifying holding criteria is well advanced and is expected to be finalised in 2017.
To support the effective implementation of these policy stances, <strong>ECB</strong> Banking
Supervision has invested significantly in training for staff and in communication
towards the banking sector and the wider public.
With regard to licensing, work has started on developing policy stances relating to
scope, assessment of licensing criteria and procedural issues relating to the process
of granting licences. Another project has been started to develop a common
European banking supervision stance on the granting of banking licences to FinTech
companies.
2.2 <strong>Report</strong>ing of breaches, enforcement and sanctioning
proceedings
2.2.1 Enforcement and sanctioning
Under the SSM Regulation and the SSM Framework Regulation, the allocation of
enforcement and sanctioning powers between the <strong>ECB</strong> and the NCAs depends on
the nature of the alleged breach, the person responsible and the measure to be
adopted (see <strong>ECB</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on supervisory activities 2014).
30
The draft Guide to fit and proper assessments was published for public consultation on 14 November
2016 in parallel to, and fully consistent with, the EBA consultation of its revised Guidelines on suitability.
Publication of the final guide is expected in the second quarter of 2017.
<strong>ECB</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on supervisory activities 2016 − Authorisations, enforcement and
sanctioning proceedings 38