Elderson backs €10 billion threshold for simpler bank supervision
European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Frank Elderson backs raising the simplified-supervision asset threshold from €5 billion to €10 billion. In an October 14, 2026 interview with Die Presse, he said about 150 more banks would qualify.
Less reporting, unchanged safeguards
Small and non-complex banks report up to 30 percent of the data required from large banks.
Elderson supports longer intervals between regulatory reviews where risk permits and reusing existing data for stress tests.
Core capital, liquidity, governance and risk-management standards must remain intact.
He said the costs of the 2008 crisis far exceeded regulatory costs.
Fragmentation, not regulation, is Europe's main competitive obstacle: differing legal, insolvency and consumer-protection rules constrain scale and capital allocation.
He urged completion of the Single Market, savings and investments union and banking union, including European deposit insurance.
The European Commission's banking reform package must combine simplification and integration.
October deadline for AI defenses
In July, the ECB asked banks to reassess cybersecurity, IT budgets and staffing as advanced AI models identify and exploit vulnerabilities faster.
Banks must submit concrete action plans for AI-related cyber risks by the end of October 2026.
Elderson said AI can improve efficiency, fraud detection and risk management, but warned against excessive reliance on models, biased credit decisions and poor training data.
Dependence on a small number of cloud providers adds concentration risk.
Banks must retain control over decisions rather than delegate them to algorithms.
Risk survives lighter rules
Elderson's boundary is risk, not bank size alone.
He said weakening Basel III Pillar 1 requirements can transfer work from regulation to supervision rather than eliminate it.
Private-credit links also require scrutiny: banks can finance both a lender and its borrowers, creating concentrations that become visible under stress.
Source: Frank Elderson: Interview with Die Presse
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