The decision on whether a bank is significant or not is based on:
- its size (total asset value exceeding EUR 30bn);
- its significance for the economy of the specific country or the EU economy as a whole;
- its cross-border activities (total asset value exceeding EUR 5bn, and the ratio of its cross‑border assets or liabilities to its total assets or liabilities exceeding 20%); and
- whether it has requested or received direct financial assistance from the European Stability Mechanism or the European Financial Stability Facility.
As a rule, a supervised bank can also be considered significant if it is one of the three most significant banks established in a particular country.
The ECB regularly reviews all banks established in participating Member States. The banks’ status may change for reasons associated with regular business activity or due to one-off events, such as mergers and acquisitions. In such cases, the ECB and the relevant national supervisory authorities coordinate the transfer of supervisory responsibilities.