European Banking Watchdog Could Gain Ability to Shut Down Banks

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European Banking Watchdog Could Gain Ability to Shut Down Banks

A glimpse at Europe’s plans for a new ‘uber-watchdog’

The new European Central Bank (ecb) watchdog could have the power to order banks and lenders to close down, Reuters news agency reported August 1, citing anonymous “officials and policymakers.”

“The right to withdraw the banking license, which is the hour of death for the bank, must be with the supervisor,” it quotes an official as saying. “If the ecb becomes the supervisor, it has to have this.”

“Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said the latest plans envisage giving the eurozone’s central bank the remit to police far more than just the currency area’s 25 top banks, as originally expected,” Reuters says. It reports that the watchdog will be able to overrule national lenders and intervene in smaller banks, if it believes it is necessary. Reuters has labeled the new body an “uber-watchdog.”

The plan for the watchdog will be finalized in the next few weeks and announced in September.

Trumpet columnist Brad Macdonald wrote last month: “One of the loftiest aspirations of European elites has been the acquisition—either directly, or indirectly via the Europeanization of English finance—of Britain’s lucrative banking sector.”

Now we find that EU officials are quietly planning a much stronger banking watchdog than expected.

“It’s an early test of how much power each country is willing to give up in terms of how it handles its own affairs. You start with bank supervision,” said the Wall Street Journal’s Brian Blackstone a fortnight ago. “Someday maybe you grow up to fiscal policy and economic policy, that they could share this within the eurozone.” So far, it looks like eurozone nations are willing to give up a lot of power.

The European commissioner for internal markets and services, Michel Barnier, said the watchdog would be designed to apply to euro area banks as well as banks from participating EU nations.

Britain has already said it has no interest in submitting to this regulator. But Prime Minister David Cameron may come under increasing pressure to do so. European leaders regularly criticize Anglo-American banks, which they say need to be brought under control.

Even without Britain, a euro-wide banking regulator would wield significant power over British and American banks. A national regulator could threaten to lock a bank out of a national market. This eurozone regulator could potentially lock banks out of the whole eurozone.

Bible prophecy warns us that a strong European financial market will soon dominate world trade. This new uber-regulator is a direct part of that prophecy.

For more information, read our article “Financial Regulation in Prophecy!