by Gwynn Guilford
Lisa Pollack bemoans the European Central Bank's pretty major handicap when it comes to monitoring financial institutions, a lack of data:
The data the European Central Bank currently have is arguably not enough for even the macro-prudential supervision they’d like to do, let alone the more specific kind — a troubling thought if it is to build out a regulatory capacity.
The reason for this dearth of data:
Concerning the legal hurdles, national regulators have a serious advantage over the ECB in that they are operating within their home jurisdiction. This means good access to information for financial institutions that operate in their territory. It’s kind of like having the power to do strip searches…. But the ECB is one step removed, sitting outside the relevant jurisdictions. Instead of a strip search it’s more like they can request a small pat down over tea and biscuits, should parties be so willing.
