How banking supervision is organized in Austria
Banking supervision in Austria – who is doing what?
Within the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the ongoing supervision of banks operating in Austria is a responsibility shared by the ECB, the Financial Market Authority (FMA) and the OeNB. The legal framework for supervision in Austria is based on directly applicable EU law and on rules that the Austrian Ministry of Finance sets on the basis of EU directives.
| Who is doing what | ||
|---|---|---|
| The OeNB monitors financial stability in Austria in general. In banking supervision, the OeNB is in charge of fact finding: It undertakes on-site inspections, analyzes the information compiled and drafts reports. Moreover, the OeNB is responsible for processing reporting data. | The ECB has been responsible for the supervision of banks in the euro area since November 4, 2014. It directly supervises significant banks, whereas less significant banks are supervised by the national competent authorities subject to oversight by the ECB. | |
| The FMA is the designated public authority in Austria for banking supervision and macroprudential supervision, for the supervision of insurance companies and pension funds, as well as for securities regulation. The FMA monitors compliance with the relevant rules and is also the Austrian resolution authority. | The Austrian Ministry of Finance is responsible for drafting government bills and converting EU legal acts into Austrian legislation. | |
Another key player in the field of banking supervision, in addition to the ECB, the FMA, the OeNB and the Austrian Ministry of Finance, is the European Banking Authority (EBA). The EBA is an independent EU agency whose standards also apply to EU countries that are not part of the euro area.
How the supervisory function is organized at the OeNB
Mirroring the structure at the European level, the OeNB’s banking supervision distinguishes between significant and less significant institutions (SIs and LSIs). This means that the OeNB has off-site analysis and on-site inspection division that are separate for SIs and for LSIs. In addition, the OeNB also has a separate division that is responsible for cross-functional activities, such as conducting stress tests and organizing management briefings, and deals with regulatory and strategic issues. Yet another division monitors overall financial stability and carries out the OeNB’s legal mandate in macroprudential supervision: It runs the office of the Financial Market Stability Board, conducts macroprudential analyses, drafts policy measures and related expert opinions, and serves as the real estate hub within the OeNB.
The role of the EBA
While the SSM is the operational arm of banking supervision in the euro area, the European Banking Authority (EBA) is an independent EU agency that serves all EU member states. The legal implementation of the international standards developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) takes place in the context of the European legislative process, with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) representing key legislation in this context. It is the EBA’s task to establish, based on European law, uniform rules for harmonized banking supervision. It fulfills this mandate by developing standards and guidelines.
The EBA is represented externally by its Chairperson, and its main decision-making body is the Board of Supervisors (BoS), which takes all policy decisions of the EBA, such as adopting draft technical standards, guidelines, opinions and reports. Austria is represented on the Board of Supervisors by the FMA (voting member) and the OeNB (non-voting member). Reflecting the division of tasks between the OeNB and the FMA, the OeNB has representatives in numerous EBA bodies and working groups and contributes to the development of the EBA’s technical standards and guidelines.