Minouche Shafik, the incoming deputy governor for markets and banking at the Bank of England (BoE), has praised the steps taken so far by EU officials to establish a banking union, but said it was too early to tell whether the "huge project" would ultimately be a success.

Shafik, who officially takes up her post at the BoE on August 1 – but in fact started working with them on Monday this week – said during a parliamentary hearing today that having to deal with "one major supervisor simplifies