“European banks have to decide how to deal with Brexit and preparing for the worst would be appropriate”. You don't mince words Sabine Lautenschlaeger, number two in banking supervision at the ECB, who spoke yesterday in Frankfurt.
“We have done our homework and together with the national authorities we have developed a plan to tackle Brexit from a supervisory point of view”, he added, specifying that “the most important message is that we will stick to our standards ”.
Lautenschlaeger then underlined that the ECB will "resist any attempt to lower supervisory levels", because "all banks in the Eurozone must meet quality standards: it does not matter if they come from the United Kingdom or from anywhere else".
Finally, banks operating in the Eurozone must be “real” and “not fictitious banking companies”, i.e. they must “have a specific local division for risk management, sufficient local staff and operational independence”, concluded Lautenschlaeger .
