Title page
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4
FOREWORD 7
LIST OF ACRONYMS 9
1. INTRODUCTION 10
2. EUROPEAN BANKING POLICY BEFORE THE EURO-AREA CRISIS 14
3. DECISION POINT: THE EURO-AREA CRISIS AND THE BIRTH OF THE BANKING UNION PROJECT 32
4. EUROPEAN BANKING SUPERVISION: AN OLD DREAM COME TRUE 61
5. UNFINISHED WORK: SOVEREIGN EXPOSURES AND CRISIS-INTERVENTION FRAMEWORK 91
6. EUROPE'S CHOICE: PROCRASTINATE OR ANTICIPATE 135
REFERENCES 149
APPENDIX A: SAMPLE OF BANKS AND SELECTED BANK-LEVEL DATA SUMMARISED IN TABLES 1 AND 2 160
Table 1. Sovereign exposures of significant euro-area banks, mid-2023 96
Table 2. Sovereign exposures of a sample of significant euro-area banks, mid-2016 and mid-2023 97
Figure 1. France, Italy, Spain, 10-year sovereign bond spread vs Germany 41