NEW DIRECTORS-GENERAL/ECB.

The Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) appointed, on 9 January, the four directors-general who are to head the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). Under the mechanism, the banking systems of participating EU member states will be supervised as of November 2014. Stefan Walter, currently principal, global regulatory and supervisory policy leader, at Ernst & Young, and Ramon Quintana, currently director-general of banking supervision at Banco de Espana, will respectively head the two Directorates-General Micro-Prudential Supervision I and II, tasked with the direct supervision of significant banks. Jukka Vesala, currently deputy director-general at the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority, has been...