Strasbourg, 07/05/2020

Complaint 2168/2019/KR

Subject: Recommendation of the European Ombudsman in the above case on how the European Banking Authority handled the move of its former Executive Director to become CEO of a financial industry lobby group

Dear Mr X,

Please find enclosed, for your information, a copy of my recommendation that I have sent to the European Banking Authority in relation to your complaint.

My recommendation is as follows:

• For the future, the EBA should, where necessary, invoke the option of forbidding its senior staff from taking up certain positions after their term-of-office. Any such prohibition should be time-limited, for example, for two years.

• To give clarity to senior staff, the EBA should set out criteria for when it will forbid such moves in future. Applicants for senior EBA posts should be informed of the criteria when they apply.

• The EBA should put in place internal procedures so that once it is known that a member of its staff is moving to another job, their access to confidential information is cut off with immediate effect.

 

I have asked the European Banking Authority to send its opinion by 31 August 2020.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Emily O'Reilly

European Ombudsman

 

Enclosure: Recommendation sent to the European Banking Authority in case 2168/2019/KR.