2014 discharge: European Banking Authority (EBA)

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Banking Authority (EBA) for the financial year 2014, together with the Authority’s reply.

CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks conferred on the Court of Auditors by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court presents to the European Parliament and to the Council, in the context of the discharge procedure, a Statement of Assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of each institution, body or agency of the EU, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them, on the basis of an independent external audit.

This audit concerned, amongst others, the annual accounts of the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Statement of Assurance: pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:

• the annual accounts of the Authority, which comprise the financial statements and the reports on the implementation of the budget for the financial year ended 31 December 2014;
• the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

Opinion on the reliability of the accounts: in the Court’s opinion, the Authority’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2014 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer.

Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts: the Court considers that the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2014 are legal and regular in all material respects.

The report also makes a series of observations on the budgetary and financial management of the Authority, accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations may be summarised as follows:

The Court’s observations:

• budgetary management: the Court notes that carry-overs of committed appropriations for administrative expenditure reached 48 %, mainly related to the Authority’s move to its new premises in mid-December 2014.

The Authority’s reply:

Budgetary management: the Authority takes note of the Court’s report.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Authority’s activities in 2014. This is focused on the following:

Budget: EUR 33.6 million, of which the Union subsidy is EUR 13.4 million.

Activities:

• conduct of 66 public consultations on draft regulatory and implementing technical standards for the European Commission;
• issuance of guidelines and recommendations to national competent authorities;
• coordination of the 2014 EU-wide stress test to assess the resilience of 123 EU banks to adverse economic developments, so as to understand remaining vulnerabilities, complete the repair of the EU banking sector and increase confidence;
• provision of 13 opinions addressed to the Commission, European Parliament and Council;
• issuance of thematic reports and semi-annual banking sector and cross-sectoral risk reports;
• active participation in meetings and activities of colleges of national supervisory authorities, including the promoting and monitoring of supervisory cooperation;
• work related to Euribor and benchmark-related issues, performed jointly with the ESMA, including monitoring the implementation of the recommendations to Euribor-EBF;
• annual assessment of banks’ implementation of disclosure requirements;
• improvements in internal management of the Authority.