The European Central Bank (ECB) reviews whether a credit institution or a group fulfils any of the significance criteria according to the SSM Regulation on at least an annual basis. This annual assessment includes credit institutions, financial holding companies and mixed financial holding companies established in the Euro area, as well as branches established in the Euro area by credit institutions based in other EU Member States. The number of significant institutions that have been directly supervised by the ECB from 1 January 2019 stands at 119 following the annual review of significance and ad-hoc assessments. The changes in significance statuses are the result of new group structures, license withdrawals, mergers and other developments. Several large banking groups have also relocated their activities to the Euro area. This has increased the overall complexity and size of directly supervised banks.
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