Plan to urge ECB supervision of banks

The European Commission will propose next month giving the European Central Bank supervision over all of the eurozone’s major banks, German business newspaper Handelsblatt said yesterday, citing Commission sources.

That would include Sparkassen savings banks and Genossenschaftsbanken co-operative banks which Germany had hoped would be exempt when it signalled it wanted supervision only over the biggest 25 banks, the paper reported.

The commission’s plan, due on Sep 11, envisages national authorities supervising day-to-day business and the ECB only intervening where it sees “dangerous risks”, Handelsblatt said.