This new book combines contributions from leading academics with those of the key authorities responsible for European banking markets, including Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the European Central Bank's executive board member responsible for supervision. The result is a comprehensive analysis of how Europe can safeguard its financial stability, despite the lack of a centralised supervisory authority. Understanding the Importance: Understanding the importance of these issues is critical for bankers, academics and financial market authorities throughout Europe and beyond. Alongside the European perspective the authors examine the difficult and politically charged role which all central banks play as lenders of last resort. In the post-war period, in the words of Charles Goodhart, the "re-emphasised primacy, and clarity, of the monetary stability role has, in practice, been accompanied by some uncertainties about, and even withdrawal from, the second main historical role of central banks, i.e. the provision of financial stability". Which Lender of Last Resort for Europe? Considers how central banks' can perform their financial stability remit even when direct supervision is carried out elsewhere.