Banking supervision starts with the planning of the regular supervisory activities, which are laid down in the Supervisory Examination Programme (SEP). The SEP covers the tasks and activities related to ongoing supervision and on-site missions, in line with available resources. The identification and assessment of key risks and vulnerabilities affecting entities under European banking supervision constitutes an essential part of the ECB’s role in banking supervision. It forms a basis for the definition of supervisory priorities and feeds into the everyday work of the JSTs.

Ongoing supervision entails a number of activities that are conducted regularly or on an ad hoc basis and that are aimed at assessing the suitability of members of management bodies, checking compliance with prudential regulation, assessing the risk profile and performing the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP). For significant institutions within the SSM, these tasks fall under the responsibility of the JSTs. In addition to ongoing supervision, it may be necessary to conduct in-depth reviews on certain topics by organising a dedicated on-site mission (e.g. an inspection or an internal model investigation). The on-site inspections are typically carried out by an inspection team, which - while organisationally independent-works in close cooperation with the respective JST.

The various supervisory activities typically result in supervisory measures addressed to the supervised institution. Supervisory activities and decisions are typically followed by a number of routine steps such as the monitoring of compliance and, if necessary, enforcement and sanctions.