(Reuters) -The European Central Bank has launched a task force, chaired by Vice President Luis de Guindos, that will look for ways of simplifying banking rules in Europe, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

The central bank governors of Germany, France, Italy and Finland are also part of the task force, the source said.

The ECB declined to comment, while Germany's Bundesbank, the Bank of France, the Bank of Italy and the Bank of Finland did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The ECB does not have power to change rules, which is the prerogative of European lawmakers in Brussels. Any recommendation made by the task force would need to go to Brussels for consideration.

The launch of the task force was previously reported by Bloomberg.

Its creation follows a letter to the European Commission this year in which the central bank governors of Germany, France, Italy and Spain called for simplifying European banking rules where they were "unduly complex."

"A comprehensive analysis of the implications of all the standards produced in Europe should be carried out … to ensure that they do not cumulatively add unintended layers of rules and expectations," the four governors said in their letter, which was addressed to Commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque.

They said this review could lead to "a legislative proposal … with concrete and realistic simplification measures."

The ECB's chief supervisor Claudia Buch defended Europe's "complex" rules this week.

"It is sometimes argued that banking rules are too complex,” she told an event in Washington. "But … for regulation to effectively address the industry's specific needs and vulnerabilities, it must be sufficiently detailed."

ECB Governing Council member Fabio Panetta said in February that Europe must avoid excessive regulation and that it might consider simplifying existing rules.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Francesco Canepa;Editing by Gareth Jones and Rod Nickel)