The Difficult Construction of European Banking Union examines the political, legal and economic issues surrounding the lacunae and design faults of European Banking Union and its problematic operation. The volume brings together the work of sixteen scholars focused on the diverse debates surrounding the construction and operation of Banking Union (BU), and its necessary reform. BU represents one of the most important developments in European integration since the launch of Monetary Union. Furthermore, the design of the BU agreed between 2012 and 2014 was a messy compromise among EU member states. It is not surprising then that BU has sparked a lively academic debate and triggered an ever-growing number of publications from different disciplinary backgrounds. The first wave of academic work on BU focuses upon the economic rationale underpinning the supranationalisation of control over banking -- regulation, supervision, support and resolution -- and the political dynamics and legal issues that shaped the design of the Union agreed. This volume is located at the intersection of this first phase of academic research and a second stage which analyses the functioning of the different elements of BU. New research questions are triggered by the albeit limited empirical evidence on BU's implementation and operation. Contributions to this second wave of research attempt to identify potentially dangerous lacunae and contribute to on-going reform debates. The Difficult Construction of European Banking Union will be of great interest to scholars of the European Union, Banking, Economic Governance, and Political Economy. Most of the chapters were originally published as three special issues in the Journal of Economic Policy Reform.

The Difficult Construction of European Banking Union examines the political, legal and economic issues surrounding the lacunae and design faults of European Banking Union and its problematic operation. The volume brings together the work of sixteen scholars focused on the diverse debates surrounding the construction and operation of Banking Union (BU), and its necessary reform. BU represents one of the most important developments in European integration since the launch of Monetary Union. Furthermore, the design of the BU agreed between 2012 and 2014 was a messy compromise among EU member states. It is not surprising then that BU has sparked a lively academic debate and triggered an ever-growing number of publications from different disciplinary backgrounds. The first wave of academic work on BU focuses upon the economic rationale underpinning the supranationalisation of control over banking — regulation, supervision, support and resolution — and the political dynamics and legal issues that shaped the design of the Union agreed. This volume is located at the intersection of this first phase of academic research and a second stage which analyses the functioning of the different elements of BU. New research questions are triggered by the albeit limited empirical evidence on BU’s implementation and operation. Contributions to this second wave of research attempt to identify potentially dangerous lacunae and contribute to on-going reform debates. The Difficult Construction of European Banking Union will be of great interest to scholars of the European Union, Banking, Economic Governance, and Political Economy. Most of the chapters were originally published as three special issues in the Journal of Economic Policy Reform.

Contributions from Viral Acharya, Joshua Aizenman, Franklin Allen, Thorsten Beck, Erik Bergl f, Claudia Buch, Elena Carletti, Ralph de Haas, Luis Garicano, Andrew Gimber, Charles Goodhart, Vasso Ioannidou, Daniel Gros, Dirk Schoenmaker, Geoffrey Underhill, Wolf Wagner, Benjamin Weigert, Frank Westermann, Charles Wyplosz and Jeromin Zettelmeyer.

This book explains why the European Union (EU) Member States – in response to the euro crisis – agreed to establish banking union, despite previous objections, and why they chose its hybrid institutional design. Analysing its establishment from 2012 to 2020, the book offers a comprehensive view of the preferences of the Member States and EU institutions, as well as of the negotiation dynamics and latest developments in the three pillars of banking union, namely, the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the Single Resolution Mechanism and the common backstop, and the European deposit insurance scheme. Furthermore, empirically, the book looks beyond the usual focus of the northern and southern coalition of states to underline the influence of powerful smaller Member States in the intergovernmental bargaining process. Adopting a range of theoretical perspectives, it questions the solidity of the northern versus southern camps and reveals distinctive and particular positioning from individual countries during the process. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European financial market regulation, European economic governance, EU institutions, European integration theory and EU politics more broadly.

The SDN elaborates the case for, and the design of, a banking union for the euro area. It discusses the benefits and costs of a banking union, presents a steady state view of the banking union, elaborates difficult transition issues, and briefly discusses broader EU issues. As such, it assesses current plans and provides advice. It is accompanied by three background technical notes that analyze in depth the various elements of the banking union: a single supervisory framework; a single resolution and common safety net; and urgent issues related to repair of weak banks in Europe.

The establishment of Banking Union represents a major development in European economic governance and European integration history more generally. Banking Union is also significant because not all European Union (EU) member states have joined, which has increased the trend towards differentiated integration in the EU, posing a major challenge to the EU as a whole and to the opt-out countries. This book is informed by two main empirical questions. Why was Banking Union - presented by proponents as a crucial move to 'complete' Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) - proposed only in 2012, over twenty years after the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty? Why has a certain design for Banking Union been agreed and some elements of this design prioritized over others? A two-step explanation is articulated in this study. First, it explains why euro area member state governments moved to consider Banking Union by building on the concept of the 'financial trilemma', and examining the implications of the single currency for euro area member state banking systems. Second, it explains the design of Banking Union by examining the preferences of member state governments on the core components of Banking Union and developing a comparative political economy analysis focused on the configuration of national banking systems and varying national concern for the moral hazard facing banks and sovereigns created by euro level support mechanisms.

This book investigates the role of banking interest groups and lobbying in the making of the European Banking Union. Facing the politicization of financial regulation in the wake of the crisis, core players of the European banking industry managed to adapt and re-orient their lobbying resources and strategies to influence the reform process. This work advances an original Critical IPE approach, which combines structural power, the collective agency of key socio-economic groups and the issue salience as critical determinants to explain corporate influence in policy-making. The explanatory framework is applied to a comprehensive analysis, tracing the Banking Union’s development within the broader context of the EU post-crisis banking regulation. An in-depth scrutiny of the interest groups’ preferences, coalitions and attainments is thus provided on the pillars of the Banking Union, covering banking supervision, resolution, deposit insurance, as well as the reform of the banks’ prudential requirements and the failed project of an EU banking structural reform.