Foreword

Andrea Enria

In 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) celebrates its fifth anniversary. This is a good opportunity for taking stock of some of its achievements, as well as looking ahead to future opportunities and challenges.

Before the crisis, the European Union was at the forefront of the process that led to increased international integration of the banking and financial industries. The legal and institutional underpinnings of the single market, and the introduction of the single currency in the euro area, led to an unprecedented expansion in cross-border banking business in the first decade of the century. Not surprisingly, when the crisis spread across frontiers, the EU was severely hit. The banking crisis morphed into a sovereign debt crisis and became a threat for the whole institutional set-up, spreading fear in markets well beyond the boundaries of the Union.

The EBA was established in response to a call for a more integrated regulatory and supervisory framework in the EU. Our main task in these five years has been to lay the foundation for the European Single Rulebook, which is a set of common rules directly applicable across all EU member states. Banks are facing more