On November 4 2014 the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) became fully operative. The SSM was established by the EU SSM Regulation (1024/2013), which conferred specific tasks on the European Central Bank (ECB) concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions, and complemented by the EU SSM Framework Regulation (468/2014), which established the framework for SSM cooperation between the ECB and national competent authorities and national designated authorities.