The ECB’s Streamlined Approach to Remediation

In a “Supervision Newsletter” post published last week, the European Central Bank (ECB) outlines how it is streamlining its approach to remediation of supervisory findings while preserving the resilience of European banks.

The newsletter explains that supervisors identify findings, communicate expectations and measures to banks, and follow up until underlying issues are addressed. If remediation is inadequate or delayed, supervisors may escalate through binding requirements or enforcement measures. “Ultimately, banks are responsible for remediating findings and should have in place a robust governance and risk management culture around timely remediation,” the ECB writes.

The ECB highlights that by the end of 2025, outstanding measures across significant institutions had reached around 12,000, an average of 100 per bank. To address this, the ECB has introduced a “tiered approach” for findings and measures in 2025 that withdrew documentation requirements for low-severity issues. This shift is already showing results: in 2025, measures closed outnumbered those created by 1,200, with the stock falling by a further 600 in 2026 thus far. “Evidence now shows that both banks and supervisors have been increasingly concentrating their efforts on what matters the most,” the newsletter explains.

Building on this progress, the ECB will launch a “refocusing exercise” in October 2026 to review the stock of outstanding measures by severity, age, and prudential relevance. This will let supervisors “discontinue or simplify” low-impact findings while banks focus resources on higher-risk issues. This will be accompanied by further process simplifications in the ECB’s supervisory approach, the newsletter explains.

“The new strategic approach to findings and measures will enhance consistency across banking supervision,” the ECB writes. “Furthermore, stronger governance and monitoring of the timely remediation of findings will enable more effective practices across all joint supervisory teams. These efforts will be underpinned by enhanced tools for assessing and tracking open findings and measures throughout their entire lifecycle.”