The European Banking Union and its impact on legal disciplines: a short introduction

Like a latter-day Cinderella, the European Banking Union failed to make the original guest list when EMU formally began at Maastricht in 1992. Subsequently, however, the EBU went on to have its status transformed, gaining star billing. The significance of its belated creation has impressed scholars and participants alike. This article looks at the reasons for its initial exclusion, and the grounds for its then seemingly-inevitable subsequent eventual incorporation into the euro area structure in the form which it has taken. It also considers the elements which make the EBU: the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the Single Resolution Mechanism and the EBU's deposit insurance aspect. The future prospects of the EBU are then considered, and conclusions on the relationship between the EBU and EMU reached, with due regard being paid both to the need to update it and remain in step with broader international developments, and the need for its context to be accompanied by a Capital Markets Union.