ECB 'Well on Track' to Complete Three Pillars of Eurozone Financial Regulation

The European Central Bank said it has received 14,000 applications for jobs at a new system of regulation for eurozone financial institutions.

The ECB is hiring 800 staff for its new Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), a centralised system of regulation for eurozone banks that will apply the same regulatory standards across all states.

A flood of applications was revealed by Daniele Nouy, who heads up the SSM at the ECB. She hopes all of the roles will be filled by the end of the summer and said the ECB is "well on track" to launch the new framework.

Eurozone economies are at the beginning of a tentative recovery from the sovereign debt crisis in 2010 which almost broke up the currency union.

But work to fix the financial system is still unresolved, one of the key risks to its own recovery and that of other economies across the world.

As well as an overarching supervisory body at the ECB, eurozone policymakers have also created the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM).

This is a system that allows failing banks to be wound down or recapitalised without the taxpayer having to bail them out with emergency funding, as happened during the financial crisis.

And a third system is the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS), which insures depositors for up to €100,000 in order to protect ordinary consumers against the risk of their bank collapsing and the subsequent loss of all their money.

Together, the SSM, SRM and DGS make up the "three pillars" of a new regulatory framework for the eurozone.