Explaining the sudden creation of a banking supervisor for the euro area

Abstract:

While banking supervision in the European Union (EU) had been subject to slow incremental changes in the 2000s, the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) in 2012/2013 amounted to a comparably swift and significant transfer of sovereignty.

This article explores the institutional dynamics behind this sudden shift from incremental to punctuated change. We show that powerful ‘reproduction mechanisms’ of institutional stability were decisively weakened by the euro area crisis and the existential need to break the feedback loop between banks and sovereigns.

The institutional breakthrough came about as a package deal, linking banking supervision to a short-term crisis management measure for direct bank recapitalization. In focusing on the twin dynamics of previous stability and sudden change and structural and institutional factors behind the decisive turning point at the June 2012 summit, this article adds a new perspective to previous accounts and their emphasis on individual actors, functionalist learning processes or ideational aspects.