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With the institutional setting for the Banking Union having been established and become fully operational, market participants, supervisory staff, and academics are gradually getting to terms with the reality of the new two-tier system of supervisory and resolution authorities within the Eurozone. Drawing from media coverage, input from practitioners and the on-going academic debate, the present article seeks to present an-inevitably provisional-assessment of the new regime from a German perspective. While regulatees and their advisers within the country appear to have got used to the new reality, the paper also identifies a number of residual concerns, some of which are attributable to the specific characteristics of the German financial sector, others indicative of broader problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the administrative remedy provided by the Administrative Board of Review (ABoR) of the European Central Bank (ECB), as part of the broader issue of the right of defence of natural and legal persons vis- à- vis ECB supervisory decisions within the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). After presenting an overview of the review panels established in the financial sector in the EU, the article describes the experience with the ABoR by analysing its composition, its mandate and scope of review, the main procedural aspects and the relationship with judicial proceedings before the European Court of Justice. Particular attention is given to the substantial issues dealt with by the ABoR in its Opinions and to some of the major challenges faced in the first 2 years of practice. Among them is the assessment of the correct application of national laws implementing EU legislation by the ECB. The paper identifies two aspects giving particular cause for concern and requiring legislative reforms: (1) the assessment of the suitability of the members of management bodies (fit and proper assessment) and (2) the inclusion of bank holding companies within the scope of banking supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of the European Business Organization Law Review is devoted to fundamental problems in the field of retail financial services as have become particularly clear since the recent disruption of the financial markets. Ultimately, these issues lead to line-drawing problems and policy choices about investor and consumer protection which are tackled from a legal and an economic perspective respectively. The articles in this issue have originated from papers and proceedings of the joint IMFS (Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability) and LEMF (Doctorate/PhD Program ‘Law and Economics of Money and Finance’) conference on ‘Retail Financial Services after the Crisis: Legal and Economic Perspectives on Investor and Consumer Protection’, which took place at the House of Finance, Goethe University of Frankfurt on 20 and 21 January 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use case studies to document how dominant shareholders have circumvented mandatory bid rules to appropriate wealth from minority shareholders. Dominant shareholders are numerous in Continental Europe. Creative compliance with mandatory bid rules reveals the failure of boards and regulators to protect minority shareholders and the difficulties of legislating in this area. We propose enhanced means for protecting their interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]