In its ruling, the European Ombudsman followed BEUC’s arguments on the geographical balance of the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) stakeholder group. In our complaint filed in September 2011 we asked the Ombudsman to investigate the geographical balance of the stakeholder group. The Ombudsman agreed that appointing 9 out of 10 industry representatives coming from pre-2004 member states does not constitute an appropriate geographical balance.  

We also denounced an unfair capture of the “users of banking services” category by rating agencies (Standard & Poor’s) or auditors (e.g. PwC). We argued that categorising these professional banking industry service providers as “users” is misleading and inappropriate. The Ombudsman stated that EBA had committed an instance of maladministration in appointing members who were “not retail users of the services provided by the financial/banking sector”.

The role of the EBA stakeholder group is to facilitate consultation with stakeholders in areas relevant to the tasks of the EBA.