BRUSSELS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - European Central Bank Governing Council member Guy Quaden called for a European bank supervision system, widely seen as wanting during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
In an interview appearing in Saturday's edition of Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, Quaden called for more transparency and for banks to make a general return to simpler banking products.
"There should be a European system of supervisors," he said in the newspaper, adding that large cross-border financial institutions should be viewed in terms of their global business.
"There should be an integrated but decentralised banking supervision system, at least on the scale of the euro zone," said Quaden, also governor of the Belgian Central Bank.
Banking supervision in the European Union is nationally based and the EU's executive Commission has proposed that a bank or insurer's home regulator take overall charge of bloc-wide oversight within a college of supervisors for each institution.
The proposal came in response to calls from EU governments to streamline fragmented supervision. Britain and France, for example, have also said global supervision needs its biggest shake-up since World War II.
"This (European) system should be modelled on the eurosystem of central banks. But I'm not saying that it is this eurosystem -- European Central Bank and national central banks -- that should play this role. It could be the case," Quaden said.
Asked if the worst of the crisis was over, Quaden said: "It is a very delicate question ... the situation remains fraught."
"This is not the end of capitalism," he said. (Reporting by Jeremy Smith; Editing by Ron Askew)