14 April 2026

• Euro area must function more as a single jurisdiction, with capital and liquidity moving freely within banking groups
• Barriers still hold back cross-border banking integration and scale
• Resilient banks underpin sustainable growth and competitiveness
• Simplification must cut undue complexity, not lower resilience
• Governing Council’s 2025 simplification proposals integral to today’s response

The European Central Bank (ECB) today published proposals to make banks, and the financial infrastructure in which they operate, better able to support the economy. These proposals are endorsed by all euro area central banks. The proposals form the ECB Governing Council’s response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the competitiveness of the EU banking sector.

The Governing Council’s proposals to simplify EU banking rules, published in December 2025, form the basis for this response and are integral to it. Those proposals and the ones released today should be…