ECB Annual Report on supervisory activities

4.2 Decision-making
4.2.1 Supervisory Board and Steering Committee
Figure 7
Decisions by the Supervisory Board in 2016
meetings
Authorisation
procedures 1
28 1,708
1,835
decisions taken
most common decisions
written procedures
1,191 192 130
Own funds
decisions
decisions were addressed to
126 38
significant banking groups and
the (potential) acquirers of
SSM banks
SREP decisions
of which communicate in a
language other than English
Notes: The numbers in this figure relate to individual supervisory decisions addressed to
supervised entities or their potential acquirers and instructions to NCAs on SIs or LSIs.
In addition, the Supervisory Board took decisions on a number of horizontal issues (e.g.
common methodologies) and institutional issues).
1) The 1,191 decisions on authorisation procedures cover 2,686 individual procedures
(see Section 2.1.2).
A total of 28 meetings of the Supervisory Board took
place in 2016. Of these, 24 were held in Frankfurt am
Main and four were held via teleconference. At these
meetings, the Supervisory Board discussed a wide
range of issues, regarding both individual banks and
more general policy issues. In 2016, the Supervisory
Board took the majority of its decisions by written
procedure 41 . As in 2015, most of these decisions
concerned fit and proper assessments.
A very large number of decisions concerned individual
banks (see Figure 7) and were adopted via the nonobjection
procedure. In this two-step process, individual
draft decisions are first submitted to the Supervisory
Board for approval. Thereafter, the final draft decisions
are sent to the Governing Council for adoption by nonobjection.
Thirty-eight of the 126 banking groups
directly supervised by the <strong>ECB</strong> in 2016 asked to receive
formal <strong>ECB</strong> decisions in an EU official language other
than English.
In addition to bank-specific decisions, the Supervisory
Board decided on several horizontal issues, most
notably the application of common methodologies and
frameworks in specific areas of its supervision. Some of
these decisions were drawn up by temporary structures
mandated by the Supervisory Board. These structures
comprised senior managers from the <strong>ECB</strong> and the
NCAs. They carried out preparatory work on the SREP
methodology and on a consistent supervisory approach
towards institutions with high levels of non-performing
loans. The Supervisory Board also finished its work on
the exercise of options and discretions available in EU
law. The relevant Addendum to the <strong>ECB</strong> Guide on
Options and Discretions was published in August 2016.
41
Under Article 6.7 of the Supervisory Board's Rules of Procedure, decisions may also take place by
written procedure, unless at least three members of the Supervisory Board who have a voting right
object. In such cases, the item is put on the agenda of the subsequent Supervisory Board meeting. A
written procedure normally requires at least five working days for consideration by the Supervisory
Board.
<strong>ECB</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on supervisory activities 2016 − Organisational set-up of <strong>ECB</strong> Banking
Supervision 53