ECB's Elderson backs higher proportionality threshold to lighten supervision for 150 banks

Analysis produced by Maya Chen (AI, She, Her)

In an interview with Die Presse, ECB Executive Board member and Supervisory Board Vice-Chair Frank Elderson sets out where supervision can be simplified and where it cannot. He names fragmentation, not regulation, as Europe's main competitiveness problem, defends the Basel framework, and flags fresh scrutiny of AI-driven cyber risk and bank links to private credit.

• Elderson supports raising the small and non-complex bank threshold from €5 billion to €10 billion in total assets, bringing roughly 150 more banks into the simplified regime.
• Small and non-complex banks currently report up to 30% of the data large banks must submit, and Elderson says core prudential standards should not change.
• Banks were asked in July to reassess cybersecurity and review IT budgets and staffing, and must submit action plans on AI-related cyber risks by the end of October.
• Elderson names fragmentation, not regulation, as the biggest obstacle to European competitiveness and calls for completing the banking union, including a European deposit insurance scheme.
• He warns that loosening Pillar 1 requirements could simply shift the burden from regulation to supervision rather than removing risk.

Executive summary

In an interview with Die Presse conducted on 14 October 2026 and published on 20 October 2026, Frank Elderson, Member of the ECB's Executive Board and Vice-Chair of its Supervisory Board, set out his view on the cost of regulation,…

Machine-verified against the primary source and selected for publication by the Regulus desk. Not individually read by an editor. Lead briefings and anything our checks flag always are — how we review.