Statement on the Single Supervisory Mechanism of the ECB and its relevance for KfW

On 15 October 2013, the Council of the European Union adopted the regulation to transfer special duties in connection with the oversight of banks to the European Central Bank (ECB). As part of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the ECB is to receive direct supervisory authority over so-called “significant institutions” of participating member states. In addition to the criteria used to classify “significant institutions”, the regulation also includes the legal basis for the execution of the “balance sheet assessment”, which is to be conducted before the start of the SSM. The ECB provided information regarding the key points of the balance sheet assessment in a press conference held on 23 October 2013. KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH will also participate in the balance sheet assessment. The ECB will decide which regulated institutions are to be classified as “significant” at a later date.

However, KfW is – like the French Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and the Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti – exempt from the European banking supervision standards and is therefore not subject to oversight by the ECB. For this reason, it will not be submitted to the balance sheet assessment.