The European Union has approved a law that brings the euro zone’s 130 largest banks under the direct scrutiny of the European Central Bank through a new Single Supervisory Mechanism established by the central bank, the European Parliament and member states. The new powers are not the last. The EU governments need to ratify the new powers for them to become operative, but Brussels believes that the new supervisory authority will start work in autumn of 2014. The supervisory authority will have a range of powers to intervene when it detects banking problems and could enforce sanctions on banks or their managers, shut down or restructure banks, etc.
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, said the decision was “a real step forward in setting up a banking union, which is a core element of a genuine economic and monetary union.” The largest banks in the currency block, those with more than 30 billion Euros in assets (which is approximately 85% of bank assets in the euro zone), would be obliged to come under the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Also, large banks outside the Union with subsidiaries operating inside the EU could also come under the supervisory body. In addition, Germany agreed to let the European Central Bank, at its discretion, step in and take over supervision of any euro zone bank.
We have long predicted the rise of a renewed Holy Roman Empire under papal dominion. Getting economic control of the banking and the economy is vital to reaching this goal. The increasing assertiveness of the European Union is a harbinger of more centralization of power in Brussels, thus more tightly bundling the 28 nation’s banks and economies together.
“The end of all things is at hand. The men of the world are rushing on to their ruin. Their schemes, their confederacies, are many. New devices will continually be brought in to make of no effect the counsel of God. Men are heaping up treasures of gold and silver to be consumed by the fires of the last days.” Review and Herald, June 2, 1903.