Bulgaria Has Not Made Formal Bid to Join Single Supervisory Mechanism

The leader of the oversight arm of the European Central Bank (ECB), Daniele Nouy, said on Tuesday that no formal notification has been received from Bulgaria 

about the country's willingness to join the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for the European banking sector. Nouy was speaking before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the European Parliament. The hearing was attended by Bulgarian MEP Eva Paunova (EPP/CD), the GERB party in Sofia reported in a press release.

The hearing comes a day before ECB is expected to establish direct supervision over the largest financial institutions in the euro-area countries. The discussion focused on the findings of a financial review on Europe's largest banks.

Paunova told the meeting that by July Bulgaria's political leaders and experts had achieved broad consensus that the country should start a procedure to join SSM. On July 15 the Bulgarian National Bank said it had contacted the ECB Executive Board about the matter, but then there was silence about the further steps towards that goal, Paunova recalled.