ESRB
The ESRB, the European Systemic Risk Board, is the EU body responsible for macroprudential oversight of the financial system. The ESRB assesses risks that can spread between institutions or markets and disrupt financial services across the economy. The remit spans banks, insurers, investment funds and financial market infrastructures.
The ESRB issues warnings and recommendations when financial stability risks require action. The recommendations can address EU institutions, member states and supervisory authorities. The European Central Bank supports the ESRB secretariat in Frankfurt with the analytical and administrative work behind this system-wide oversight.
Set up after the financial crisis
The de Larosière report of 2009 recommended an EU body for the oversight of the financial system as a whole. The ESRB was created by Regulation (EU) No 1092/2010, which entered into force on 16 December 2010, and it started work at the beginning of 2011. Regulation (EU) 2019/2176 amended its rules. The remit of the ESRB covers banks, insurers, asset managers, shadow banks and financial market infrastructures.
Together with the three European Supervisory Authorities, EIOPA, the EBA and ESMA, the ESRB forms the European System of Financial Supervision. The supervisory authorities each have a sectoral remit; the ESRB looks at how risks connect across sectors. The General Board of the ESRB is the decision-making body, and the central bank governors of the EU member states sit on it.
Warnings and recommendations
The ESRB can issue warnings and recommendations when significant systemic risks require a policy response. Addressees include EU institutions, member states and European or national authorities. A warning identifies a concern; a recommendation calls for remedial action.
Recommendations follow an act or explain procedure. Addressees report the action they take or give reasons for not implementing a recommendation. The ESRB assesses that follow-up and the extent to which the identified risk has been addressed.
Stablecoins, crypto and AI on its agenda
On 25 September 2025 the ESRB adopted Recommendation ESRB/2025/9 on multi-issuer stablecoin schemes, in which an EU issuer and an issuer outside the EU issue interchangeable tokens with reserves held in different jurisdictions. Recommendation ESRB/2025/9 asks the Commission to treat such schemes as not permitted under MiCAR unless a dedicated framework exists, and sets further steps on reserve data, stress tests and supervisory convergence. Cross-border redemption and reserve arrangements are part of the financial-stability scrutiny of stablecoins in Europe; MiCA in Europe provides the regulatory context.
The ESRB Advisory Scientific Committee published a report on artificial intelligence and systemic risk in December 2025. The report on AI and systemic risk names five features of AI that could amplify systemic risk: concentration and entry barriers, model uniformity, monitoring challenges, overreliance and speed. These risks matter for the use of AI in finance in Europe by banks and other financial institutions.
Upcoming finance events in Frankfurt
Systemic risk and digital finance
Digital finance changes how financial risks can be transmitted. Stablecoins create connections between token markets, reserve assets and payment users. The ESRB examines those connections together with the relationships between banks and nonbank financial institutions.
The ESRB risk analysis includes liquidity, leverage and the concentration of exposures across the financial system. Similar technology or funding choices can connect institutions that appear separate when viewed individually. That system-wide perspective is relevant to stablecoins in Frankfurt and the discussions around central bank money at the Digital Euro Conference.
What does the ESRB do?
The ESRB is responsible for the macroprudential oversight of the EU financial system. The ESRB monitors and assesses systemic risks and, where needed, issues warnings and recommendations to EU bodies, member states and supervisors.
Who chairs the European Systemic Risk Board?
The President of the European Central Bank chairs the ESRB General Board. The ESRB secretariat handles the day-to-day business and receives ECB support for its administrative, analytical and statistical work in Frankfurt.
Are ESRB recommendations binding?
Addressees must either follow a recommendation or explain why they do not, which is known as act or explain.
Where is the ESRB located?
The ESRB is based in Frankfurt am Main, at the European Central Bank, which hosts its secretariat.
European Systemic Risk Board and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers the topics the ESRB has taken up, stablecoins, crypto assets and AI in finance, in its Payments & Digital Money and Risk & Compliance tracks. Finance Loop holds its events in Frankfurt, where the ESRB secretariat works at the ECB.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.