Banking turmoil to shape sector monitoring in 2024, says EU watchdog

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - European Union banking regulators have been set specific objectives for their 2024 checks on lenders to reflect lessons from global banking turmoil earlier this year, the European Union's banking watchdog said on Thursday.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) sets out guidance for banking regulators in the bloc's 27 member states each year, but this time round, it is asking for specific checks on liquidity and funding risks at banks, the impact of higher interest rates on their business models, and how they can recover from shocks and maintain resilience.

The European Central Bank is the largest of the EU regulators, overseeing the euro zone's biggest lenders.

It is the latest sign of how regulators are drawing lessons from the collapse of several U.S. lenders and the forced takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS earlier this year, events which roiled markets and raised questions about rules and the quality of supervision.

"This is an exercise that has always looked at supervision, but the novelty is that, being more targeted, we can be more specific on what are the expectations that we are putting on supervisors," said Francesco Mauro, a head of unit at EBA.

"The spring events reminded us of the importance of proper management of liquidity risk."

The Basel Committee of global banking regulators has said in a stock take of the banking turmoil that supervisors, and not just boards of banks, need to up their game as social media posts can accelerate runs in deposits, as shown by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

EBA will follow up on its findings, such as through bilateral discussions with regulators or peer-reviews.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Christina Fincher)