EU Leaders Agree to ECB Supervision of All Eurozone Banks
The leaders of the European Union member-states agreed early on Friday to set up a single supervisor for all 6,000 eurozone banks.
The EU leaders, however, did not set a date when the supervisor would become fully operational, the Associated Press reported.
The deal is a compromise between France - which insisted on having the supervisor in place by the end of this year - and Germany, whose chancellor Angela Merkel has urged for cautiousness.
In June the EU leaders agreed that once single supervision of the eurozone banks is introduced effectively, financial institutions would be able to tap Europe's emergency bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, directly. At the moment, money to help put banks has to go through a country's government, stretching further state finances.