EU banks to be invoiced for share of €326m ECB supervision costs

The European Central Bank is to recover a total of €326 million in fees to meet the costs of its prudential supervision of the euro banking sector between 2014 and 2015, it said on Wednesday.

This figure reflects €30 million for costs incurred in the final two months of 2014, the moment when the ECB assumed operational responsibility for supervision. A further €296 million will be required for the anticipated expenditure for the whole of 2015.

Of that money, €289.7 million (89 per cent) will be recovered from the 123 significant banks directly supervised by the ECB. The remaining €36.3 million (11 per cent) will be recovered from about 3,500 “less significant banks” indirectly supervised.

Last May a preliminary total estimate put the cost in the region of €300 million. The proportion to be recovered from indirectly supervised banks is lower than an initial estimate of 15 per cent.

Fees will be calculated according to a bank’s importance and risk profile, the ECB said.

All euro area banks have to supply data for calculating their specific fees by July and invoices will be sent in late 2015.

The ECB also warned it may yet identify further areas requiring supervision and consequently the “steady-state level of the ECB’s total supervisory expenditures will only emerge in the medium term”.