Evolution of banking supervision in the European Union: organizational and legal aspects

Introduction: the article concentrates on the study of the problem of improving the system of legal regulation and supervision in the banking sector of the European Union. The methodological framework for the research is a set of general scientific methods of cognition, such as analysis, synthesis, system approach, and private law (formal and legal, comparative law) research methods. In the course of the conducted research the author has analyzed the main sources of international and European law, the studies of domestic and foreign scholars on the subject under discussion, the analytical documents of the international organizations and institutions of the European Union. Results: the results of the study have revealed that the consistent improvement of the supervisory mechanisms in the European Union was a response to increasing the integration processes in the financial markets. Conclusions: the banking system is a special system whose structural elements are in high interdependence, and the boundaries of this system go beyond the territorial jurisdiction of one state. Therefore, the national supervisory authorities cannot take any financial decisions in complete isolation and it is only the balanced distribution of powers between the supranational and national supervisory authorities that can ensure the stability and effective functioning of the financial system in the European Union. The progressive reform of banking regulation and banking supervision proved the effectiveness of this approach - the European Central Bank was given the authority to supervise the largest banks within the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the other banks are still under control of the national authorities. For working out a complex legal and regulatory framework of the EU financial sector and ensuring the uniform application of the worked out norms and rules at European Union level there was established a special body - the European Banking Authority.