Dr. Andreas Dombret, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank spoke about Europe’s way towards a banking union. Fifteen years after the Euro was launched, Europe has taken another major step towards financial integration. By taking banking supervision from the national to the European level it has established the first pillar of a banking union. Since November 2014, Europe’s largest banks are directly controlled by the European Central Bank. This step was preceded by an assessment of the largest banks in the Euro area, including a thorough analysis of their balance sheets and a strict stress test. Based on the results of this exercise, Dr. Andreas Dombret discussed the current state of the European banking system. Looking to the future, he analyzed the impact of the banking union and the remaining structural challenges for banks. https://www.esmt.org/open-lectures