Shearman & Sterling's Head of Antitrust, Stephen Mavroghenis, and Stan Maes, Deputy Head of Unit Macroprudential Policy at the European Commission, authored the "Aid in the Banking Sector" chapter in the EU State Aid Control: Law and Economics book published by Wolters Kluwer on December 13, 2016.
The global financial crisis of 2008 had a material adverse impact on banks throughout the EU. To ameliorate these effects and restore confidence in the European financial system, EU member states provided state aid to financial institutions at an unprecedented level.
Mavroghenis and Maes' chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current State aid framework and its application to the financial sector. They analyze the rules established by the European Commission in response to the economic and financial crisis of 2008-2010. Starting with the economics of banking and the origins of the crisis, they move to a review of enforcement in the financial sector prior to the financial crisis and afterwards when the specific framework was introduced. Setting out the current State aid control framework that applies to banks, the authors also examine the European Court's scrutiny of the Commission's decisions in the financial sector and comment on controversies relating to State aid control issues, including bail-ins and burden-sharing requirements. The chapter ends with a review of the Banking Union, the new regulatory framework, and discusses its expected influence on State aid and State aid control.
View more information about the book, EU State Aid Control. Law and Economics.
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