Article 8 - Tasks and powers of the Authority

to contribute to the establishment of high-quality common regulatory and supervisory standards and practices, in particular by providing opinions to the Union institutions and by developing guidelines, recommendations, draft regulatory and implementing technical standards, and other measures which shall be based on the legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2);

to develop and maintain up to date, taking into account, inter alia, changing business practices and business models of financial institutions, a European supervisory handbook on the supervision of financial institutions in the Union as a whole, which sets out supervisory best practices for methodologies and processes;

to contribute to the consistent application of legally binding Union acts, in particular by contributing to a common supervisory culture, ensuring consistent, efficient and effective application of the acts referred to in Article 1(2), preventing regulatory arbitrage, mediating and settling disagreements between competent authorities, ensuring effective and consistent supervision of financial institutions, ensuring a coherent functioning of colleges of supervisors and taking actions, inter alia, in emergency situations;

to facilitate the delegation of tasks and responsibilities among competent authorities;

to cooperate closely with the ESRB, in particular by providing the ESRB with the necessary information for the achievement of its tasks and by ensuring a proper follow up to the warnings and recommendations of the ESRB;

to organise and conduct peer review analyses of competent authorities, including issuing guidelines and recommendations and identifying best practices, in order to strengthen consistency in supervisory outcomes;

to monitor and assess market developments in the area of its competence, including where appropriate trends in credit, in particular, to households and SMEs;

to undertake economic analyses of markets to inform the discharge of the Authority’s functions;

to foster depositor and investor protection;

to promote the consistent and coherent functioning of colleges of supervisors, the monitoring, assessment and measurement of systemic risk, the development and coordination of recovery and resolution plans, providing a high level of protection to depositors and investors throughout the Union and developing methods for the resolution of failing financial institutions and an assessment of the need for appropriate financing instruments, with a view to fostering cooperation between competent authorities involved in the management of crisis concerning cross-border institutions that have the potential to pose a systemic risk, in accordance with Articles 21 to 26;

to fulfil any other specific tasks set out in this Regulation or in other legislative acts;

to publish on its website, and to update regularly, information relating to its field of activities, in particular, within the area of its competence, on registered financial institutions, in order to ensure information is easily accessible by the public.

use the full powers available to it; and

with due regard to the objective to ensure the safety and soundness of credit institutions, take fully into account the different types, business models and sizes of credit institutions.

develop draft regulatory technical standards in the specific cases referred to in Article 10;

develop draft implementing technical standards in the specific cases referred to in Article 15;

issue guidelines and recommendations, as laid down in Article 16;

issue recommendations in specific cases, as referred to in Article 17(3);

take individual decisions addressed to competent authorities in the specific cases referred to in Articles 18(3) and 19(3);

in cases concerning directly applicable Union law, take individual decisions addressed to financial institutions, in the specific cases referred to in Article 17(6), 18(4) and 19(4);

issue opinions to the European Parliament, the Council, or the Commission as provided for in Article 34;

collect the necessary information concerning financial institutions as provided for in Article 35;

develop common methodologies for assessing the effect of product characteristics and distribution processes on the financial position of institutions and on consumer protection;

provide a centrally accessible database of registered financial institutions in the area of its competence where specified in the acts referred to in Article 1(2).