The European Commission is setting up a High-level Expert Group on structural aspects of the EU banking sector. Governor Erkki Liikanen has on 16 January 2012 been appointed as Chairman of the future Group. Commissioner Michel Barnier and Governor Liikanen are together considering the composition of the group.
The Group should start work in February and finish during the course of summer. Its mandate will be to determine whether, in addition to ongoing regulatory reforms, structural reforms of EU banks would strengthen financial stability and improve efficiency and consumer protection, and if that is the case make any relevant proposals as appropriate.
Commissioner Barnier expects the Group to make all the recommendations as regards the structure of EU banks it deems necessary to strengthen financial stability and enable banks to fully play their role in favour of the Single Market and European growth.
The announcement of the appointment of Mr Liikanen can be found on the europa.eu website:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEX/12/0117&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en