Cover ; Title; Contents; List of Figures; Preface; Prologue; Introduction ; Some preliminary observations on the new legal framework ; 1 The Financial Crisis and the Banking Union Project ; 1 The weakness of the institutional framework for managing banking crises before the financial crisis. 2 The first timid (and difficult) attempts to regulate banking insolvency 3 The answer to the financial crisis: the Banking Union project ; 2 The First Pillar of the Banking Union: The Single Supervisory Mechanism ; 1 The evolution of banking supervision at the European level. 1.3 The point of arrival: the centralisation of supervisory functions (the Single Supervisory Mechanism) 2 The Single Supervisory Mechanism: the legal and institutional profiles ; 2.1 The division of responsibilities between the ECB and national supervisory authorities. 2.2 The potential conflict of interest between supervisory and monetary policy functions: the independence and separation principles 2.3 Relations with the EBA ; 2.4 The organisation of shared supervision ; 2.5 The preparatory stage of the SSM.