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Version status: Inserted | Document consolidation status: Updated to reflect all known changes
Version date: 9 July 2024 - onwards
Version 2 of 2

Article 4a Supervisory independence of competent authorities

1. For the purposes of this Article, "members of the competent authority's governance body" means natural persons that form part of the most senior collective decision-making body of the competent authority and who are vested with the power to exercise executive functions regarding the day-to-day management of the supervisory function of the competent authority, excluding governors of national central banks.

2. For the purpose of preserving the independence of competent authorities in the exercise of their powers, Member States shall provide for the necessary arrangements to ensure that competent authorities, including their members of staff and the members of their governance bodies, can exercise their supervisory powers independently and objectively, without seeking or taking instructions from supervised institutions, from any body of the Union or any government of a Member State or from any other public or private body. Member States shall ensure that the governance bodies of competent authorities are functionally independent of other public and private bodies. Those arrangements shall be without prejudice to the arrangements under national law whereby competent authorities are subject to public and democratic accountability.