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ECB sees no need to change bank supervision set-up

BRUSSELS: European Central Bank board member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa repeated on Thursday he saw no need to change the current banking supervisory arrangements covering the euro zone.

"I think that although the system has its own peculiarities, it is designed, in its institutional structure, in a way which is completely workable," Padoa-Schioppa told an audience at the National Bank of Belgium.

"I do not share the view of those who say that institutional change is necessary in this field," Padoa-Schioppa added.

When the ECB was set up it was given a coordinating rather than lead role in the supervision of financial institutions in the euro area, although the EU's treaty opens the door for it to get more powers in this area at a later date.

Some critics have said the current structure, which relies on national supervisors talking to each other and cooperating, would not be able to cope with any serious banking crisis in one of the euro area countries, and that it is unclear in this case if the ECB could fulfil the traditional central bank role of "lender of last resort."-Reuters