THE EUROPEAN BANKING SUPERVISION ROLL CALL: "Romania!", "Absent"

The representatives of the National Bank of Romania (NBR) did not attend the reunions of the Supervisory Board of the European Banking Authority (EBA), for almost a year, according to the documents drafted at the end of each of those meetings. The Supervisory Board (CS) represents the main decision-making entity of the EBA, which has as its function the making of all the decisions concerning the policies of the authority, its website states.

Nicolae Cinteză, the head of the Supervision Division of the National Bank of Romania (NBR) is listed as Romania's representative.

According to the published minutes, the last meeting of the members of the Board of Supervisors of the EBA that Romania was present at, was held on June 12th, 2012. Since then, twelve meetings of the Supervisory Board were held, of which two on the same day. For eight of them, minutes are listed on the website of the EBA, which mention the absence of the officials of the NBR. The most recent minutes are those of the reunion of July 1st, 2013, which is why we have no way to know whether a representative of the Romanian Central Bank was present for any subsequent meetings.

The issues which were discussed in the meetings held in the absence of the NBR have included the working project for the year 2013 of the EBA, the manual of the authority for the management of the crisis situations, the banking union and its impact on the EBA, and the analysis of the quality of bank assets, according to the minutes.

Even though no member of the team that he leads attended, for at least a year the reunions of the Supervisory Board, Nicolae Cinteză seems to be aware of the decisions being made at the level of the EBA. He said last week that the Authority has recently established a definition of non-performing exposure that would ensure comparability between the member countries. The head of supervision of the Central Bank explained that "after many talks at the level of the EBA", a recommendation, which will be transposed as a regulation of the EU member countries, very clearly defines the non-performing exposure as any exposure of over 90 days or which is unlikely to be repaid by the debtor, without the foreclosure of the collateral, regardless of the existence of outstanding amounts or the number of days it is overdue.

By the time the newspaper went to print, the officials of the NBR had not sent to us their opinion concerning Romania's participation in the European Banking Authority.

The documents which the Supervisory Board adopts include the technical standards, the guides, opinions and reports. The Board also has the final decision when it comes to the budget of the European Banking Authority, the quoted source notes.

The Supervisory Board has 29 members, namely the president of the EBA and representatives of the authorities of banking supervision from the 28 member states of the European Union, who are accompanied by officials from the national banks, where applicable, the website of the authority also states.

The European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA) act as observers, the same as the officials of the banking supervision authorities of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the quoted source says.

The European banking Authority is an independent organization of the European Union (EU), which has the goal of preserving the financial stability of the Union and protecting the integrity, the effectiveness and the orderly operation of its banking system.

The actions it is habilitated to take include the making of stress tests on the lenders of the EU.

The EBA was created on January 1st, 2011, as part of the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS), taking over all the responsibilities and charges of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors.