Low staff levels could make ESM ineffective, warns consultants A.T. Kearney But the consultants add: "Finally, as a market practitioner, we also observe that the current team size, as approved, may be too small in size to operate effectively should the current crisis mode continue over a number of years." The consulting firm says in its letter to Regling that it has been helping his team develop the ESM framework since December 2011. European leaders agreed late last year to move forward the introduction of the ESM by a full year to July 1, 2012. It will raise funding and provide loans to eurozone states threatened by severe financing problems, and also have the power to buy the bonds of stricken members of the currency bloc. The mechanism is to have an effective lending capacity of €500bn that will be built up over a period of several years. In a separate official document on the staff structure of the ESM prepared by Regling's team and dated May 11, it is acknowledged that each staff member of the new facility will have "significant responsibility" for the equivalent of €6.6bn if the full lending capacity is exhausted. "These are unique ratios in financial services and a highly responsible working environment is needed to ensure errorless operations," the document reads. The existing European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which will run alongside the ESM for a year before being phased out, employs around 25 people, but it also uses to the help of the staff of the European Central Bank for market operations and the German Debt Office for some other tasks. The EFSF runs three financing programmes - for Greece, Ireland and Portugal - and officials say it is understaffed. The ECB has not yet been asked to act as an agent for market operations for the ESM, although some officials said it was likely that it would. According to the ESM framework document, eurozone government officials have given the new permanent fund a mandate to grow to 75 to 100 staff. The budget foresees a staff of 50 when it goes into operation in July, with staff rising to 75 by the end of the year. One EU official familiar with the planning described the proposed size of the ESM staff as "fair," and said it was based on the experience of the EFSF and an opinion of an external consultant.