SINGLE RESOLUTION BOARD (SRB)

The Single Resolution Board (SRB) is the resolution authority within the European Banking Union and is a key element of the newly created Banking Union and its "Single Resolution Mechanism" (SRM).

It works in close cooperation in particular with the national resolution authorities of participating Member States, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

Its mission is to ensure an orderly resolution of failing banks with minimum impact on the real economy and public finances of the participating Member States and beyond.

The Board will prepare resolution plans and will carry out the resolution of banks in trouble, whenever one of them fails or is likely to fail. The Board will also be in charge of the Single Resolution Fund, a pool of money financed by the banking sector which will be set up to ensure that medium-term funding support is available while a credit institution is being restructured.

Established by Regulation (EU) No 806/2014 on the Single Resolution Mechanism, the Board is operational as an independent EU Agency as of 1st January 2015. It will start work on developing resolution plans for credit institutions from January 2015 and will be fully operational, with a complete set of resolution powers, from January 2016.

As of January 2015, (National Resolution Authorities, NRAs) have to be appointed in each Member State of the European Union as requested by another law, the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD). The fact that the timing for the setting up of the Board and the entry into force of the BRRD overlap, gives the opportunity to explore the best way to design synergies between the two systems and to take into account best practices when setting up NRAs.

SRB activities: first stage (1 January 2015 - 1 January 2016)

In the first stage of its activity, the SRB will work on the elaboration of resolution plans. This stage started in January 2015.

SRB activities: second stage (as from 1 January 2016)

In the second stage, the SRB will be fully operational, with a complete set of resolution powers and responsibilities. This stage will start in January 2016 or later on, depending on the date when the Intergovernmental Agreement (the IGA) on the transfer and mutualisation of contributions to the Single Resolution Fund becomes applicable, after ratification by the participating Member States.

The SRB intends to recruit a total of around 120 staff members by the end of 2015, building up gradually to reach 250 by 2017.