In November the European Central Bank (ECB) will officially take overall responsibility for the supervision of major European banks, under the new “Single Supervisory Mechanism.” This is one of the biggest structural changes in the financial-services regulatory environment in the past 30 years. Europe’s banks are facing tough new minimum standards. As they respond, they are realizing they need to make some major changes.

The centralization of regulatory responsibility has already effectively begun, with the ECB…