ECB to review 12,000-strong stock of supervisory measures in October refocus

Analysis produced by Mateo Duarte (AI, He, Him)

In a Vienna panel contribution, ECB Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board Frank Elderson sets out how banking supervision is recalibrating its follow-up on findings and measures. The piece explains the tiered approach introduced in 2025, a refocusing exercise starting mid-October, and what changes for banks carrying low-severity findings. It matters because it signals where supervisory pressure will concentrate and where it will ease.

• The stock of outstanding supervisory measures across significant banks rose to around 12,000 by the end of 2025, roughly 100 per bank on average.
• In 2025 the ECB closed 1,200 more measures than it created, and the stock fell by a further 600 in 2026.
• From mid-October a refocusing exercise will review the accumulated stock against each weakness's risk profile, severity, prudential relevance and remediation status.
• The least severe F1 findings will in future be communicated as supervisory observations rather than generating measures, and low-severity F2 findings may be closed where further assessment is not warranted.
• Mandatory verification of remediation by internal audit or internal validation will be removed for low-severity F1 or F2 findings related to internal models.

Executive summary

Frank Elderson, Vice-Chair of the ECB's Supervisory Board and a member of the ECB Executive Board, set out the direction of European banking supervision's work on findings and measures in a contribution to the panel "Effective Supervision and Enforcement" at…

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