The SSM came into force on 4 November 2014. Within the new framework, supervision of all banks in the euro area is a shared responsibility of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the various national supervisory authorities, one of which is DNB.
The SSM was set up in November 2013, pursuant to an EU Regulation adopted by the European Ministers of Finance. It forms the legal basis for common banking supervision. The proposals dealing with the banking union were adopted by the European Parliament in September 2012.
Aiming to safeguard the safety and soundness of the banking sector in Europe, the European banking union also seeks to foster further financial integration and stability across Europe.
In preparation for the SSM, all major international banks were submitted to a large-scale examination known as the Comprehensive Assessment. The banks' balance sheets were audited, followed by a stress test to examine how resilient banks were in a fictitious adverse economic scenario. The ECB published the results from the assessment in a press release on 26 October 2014 .