Remarks by Commissioner Dombrovskis at the informal ECOFIN press conference

Thank you, Simon. Good afternoon, everyone.

We started our discussions on competitiveness in the banking sector. Europe needs a competitive banking sector to finance growth, innovation and strategic priorities. At yesterday's session, the Commission presented its report outlining measures to make it more efficient and better integrated. President von der Leyen doubled down on this in her State of the Union speech and the accompanying letter of intent, that the Commission will put forward a banking competitiveness and simplification package.

The Banking Competitiveness Report already outlines measures to simplify the supervisory framework itself, by reducing regulatory and prudential overlaps and reporting costs for banks, currently estimated at €11.2 billion annually.

It is important to be clear. The prudential framework put in place after the global financial crisis has made our banks more resilient. But we have seen how reforms, each individually justified, have in aggregate created overlaps and unnecessary complexity, without providing a corresponding benefit for stability.

Our objective now is not to lower the bar. We remain fully committed to the implementation of international standards. Strong common rules are essential for resilience and financial stability.

But we need to implement these standards in a way that reflects Europe's specific circumstances and avoids unnecessary competitive disadvantages. We therefore must remove the complexity and duplication that serves no useful purpose. This is an essential step towards enabling our banks to live up to their full potential to strengthen the European economy.

Next, we exchanged views on innovation in the financial sector, from payments and lending to capital markets and cross-border transactions.