LONDON, Sept 19 Reuters Most leading euro zone banks have met a January 2024 target for issuing special debt to replenish capital in a crisis, but some need to do more to ensure they can, if necessary, be wound up quickly, a European Union regulator said on Wednesday.

Recent banking crises in the United States, where Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, and in Switzerland where UBS was forced to acquire Credit Suisse, show that banks and regulators need to increase preparedness for rapidly unfolding crises, the Single Resolution Board SRB said.

Forcing banks in the EU39;s banking union to have minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities MREL was a lesson from the 2008 global financial crisis where taxpayers had to bail out banks.

MREL debt is written down in a crisis to bail in the bank and help stop it from being too big to fail.

The SRB, which sets MREL targets, said that by the end of 2022, twothirds of banks met their final target.

The shortfall is 0.3 of total risk exposures or 20.5 billion euros 21.87 billion. Some 2.7 trillion euros has been issued so far, and 24 banks have an MREL shortfall, though 14 of them have been given an extension until the end of 2024 or 2025 to meet their targets.

While holding sufficient lossabsorbing resources at all times is key, it is equally important for banks to be able to use these funds in a crisis, the SRB said in a report.

Its focus is shifting to ensuring banks can credibly demonstrate by the end of this year…