Europe's sovereign debt crisis and the accompanying national bank crises in the European Union brought bank regulation and supervision to the top of the EU policy agenda. In a few short years, we have witnessed a 'great leap forward' for European integration marked by over a dozen pieces of EU legislation shaping the operation of banks, rules on bank capital, reconfigured supervisory agencies, and Banking Union. This book addresses three political battles behind the adoption of these new policies: divisions among states; national vs. supranational jurisdiction; and the conflictual process of policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

1. Introduction: supranational banking supervision in Europe David Howarth and Huw Macartney 2. The political dynamics behind Europe's new banking union Rachel A. Epstein and Martin Rhodes 3. Internationalised banking, alternative banks and the Single Supervisory Mechanism David Howarth and Lucia Quaglia 4. Domestic preferences and European banking supervision: Germany, Italy and the Single Supervisory Mechanism Domenico Lombardi and Manuela Moschella 5. A differentiated leap forward: spillover, path-dependency, and graded membership in European banking regulation Frank Schimmelfennig 6. EU ring-fencing and the defence of too-big-to-fail banks Iain Hardie and Huw Macartney 7. Integrating macro-prudential policy: central banks as the `third force' in EU financial reform Samuel McPhilemy 8. Statistical agencies and responses to financial crises: Eurostat, bad banks, and the ESM Christopher Gandrud and Mark Hallerberg 9. Banking union through the back door? How European banking union affects Sweden and the Baltic States Aneta B. Spendzharova and Ismail Emre Bayram 10. Banking union and the future of alternative banks: revival, stagnation or decline? Richard Deeg and Shawn Donnelly

David Howarth is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Luxembourg. He is the author or co-author of five monographs, including The Political Economy of Banking Union (2016). He has also published over eighty journal articles and book chapters on political economy topics.

Huw Macartney is Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of two books on banking regulation and his research has been published in Review of International Political Economy, West European Politics, Review of International Studies, and Journal of Banking Regulation, amongst others.