Frank Elderson: Interview with Die Presse
Source: Ecb ·
From the source
Interview with Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, conducted by Aloysius Widmann on 14 October 2026 Almost without exception, banks complain about the high cost of regulation. Do they have a point? Or are these costs essential for the stability of the banking system? We shouldn’t forget the financial crisis of 2008. The costs were enormous, not only for banks, but also for households, firms, taxpayers and society as a whole. Those costs far outweigh the cost of regulation. The regulatory reforms introduced after the crisis have made European banks far more resilient. Banks today are well capitalised, have high liquidity levels and are more profitable, on average, than for many years. But wouldn’t it be possible to simplify supervision without putting the stability of the sector at risk? It’s true that regulation and the supervisory framework have become more complex over time. One of the reasons for this is that…