European Banking Authority (EBA)

EBA Publishes Feedback on Review of Single Rulebook Q&A

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On August 6, the EBA published feedback following a review of the use, usefulness and implementation of its single rulebook Q&A.

The review was carried out in the second half of 2018 using questionnaires addressed to competent authorities and selected industry representatives. It was limited to Q&A relating to the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) ((EU) No 575/2013) and the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) (2013/36/EU), which (at the time) accounted for about one third of final Q&A.

The EBA’s main findings include the following:

  • There are limited cases of non-application of Q&A identified by survey participants.
  • Competent authorities and institutions (to a slightly lesser extent) are, overall, satisfied with the utility of the single rulebook Q&A tool and the answers. However, they suggest various improvements relating to matters including response times, the search function and the presentation of the final answers.
  • There are similarities in terms of the measures taken by competent authorities at the institution level or by institutions internally to promote the Q&A tool and the use of answers.
  • Competent authorities use regular or ad hoc measures to encourage the use of the Q&A tool internally.

Based on its review, the EBA has provided non-prescriptive good practice guidance that institutions could adopt with respect to the use of Q&A (see chapter 4).

In addition, the EBA will consider the comments and suggestions received on the process, tool and answers, with a view to developing realistic and workable proposals for improvements. The EBA is also considering the reported cases of non-application in more detail to better understand the obstacles and issues in relation to the Q&A. It expects follow-up actions to be limited to informal exchanges and ad hoc queries to relevant competent authorities.

EBA Consults on Draft Guidelines on Determination of Weighted Average Maturity of Contractual Payments Due Under the Tranche of a Securitization Transaction

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On July 31, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a consultation paper on draft guidelines on the determination of the weighted average maturity (WAM) of the contractual payments due under the tranche of a securitization transaction. The guidelines are intended to provide guiding principles for institutions opting to use the WAM approach rather than final legacy maturity approach for calculating the risk-weighted exposure amounts of a securitization position under the methods that use the maturity of the tranche as a risk factor.

The main areas covered by the guidelines are:

  • Meaning of contractual payments due under the tranche.
  • Data and information requirements.
  • Methodologies for determining the contractual payments of the securitized exposures, and of the tranches, both for traditional and synthetic securitizations.
  • Implementation and use of the WAM model.

The EBA will hold a public consultation on the draft guidelines on September 3 and the deadline for responses is October 31.

The consultation paper can be found here.

EBA Publishes Consultation Paper on RTS on Standardized Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk

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On May 2, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a consultation paper on four draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the standardized approach for counterparty credit risk under Article 277(5) and Article 279a(3) of the proposed Regulation mending the Capital Requirements Regulation (575/2013) (CRR II). These proposals build on the proposals included in the discussion paper published in December 2017 (which can be found here) and include specifying methods for the mapping of derivative transactions to risk categories, a formula for the calculation of the supervisory delta of options mapped to the interest rate risk category and a method for determining whether derivative transactions are long or short in their risk drivers.

A three-pronged approach is proposed for the assignment of a derivative transaction to a risk category:

  • Qualitative approach – identifies derivative transactions that clearly have only one material risk driver.
  • Qualitative and quantitative approach – requires a more detailed assessment of, and is applicable to, derivative transactions for which the mapping cannot immediately be done on the basis of the first approach.
  • Third approach – identifyies all possible risk drivers of a transaction as material and allocating the transaction to all relevant risk-categories.

Comments can be made on the consultation paper until August 2. There will be a public hearing on June 17. The RTS are subject to change, as they are based on the proposed legislative text for CRR II and so will change to the extent the draft legislative text changes.

EBA Final Report on Implementation of Guidelines on Methods for Calculating Contributions to Deposit Guarantee Schemes

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The European Banking Authority (“EBA“) published its final report on the implementation of its guidelines on methods for calculating contributions to deposit guarantee schemes (DGSs) on January 17, 2018.

This follows the publication of a consultation paper on a draft report by the EBA in July 2017 (EBA/CP/2017/10).

The final report assesses authorities’ compliance with the principles outlined in the guidelines. The report concludes that:

  • the guidelines have broadly met the aim of introducing different contribution levels for institutions according to their risk levels. However, the method outlined in the guidelines, and currently in use, allows too much flexibility and may need to be reviewed to ensure a more consistent approach while still catering for national specificities;
  • the approach taken by member states seems to ensure a good level of transparency to stakeholders and does not cause excessive additional reporting requirements. Therefore, the guidelines do not appear to require amendment. However, changes to the way information is disclosed to the contributing institutions may be considered in the future; and
  • further analysis and greater experience of the risk-based systems currently in use is needed before proposing any changes to the guidelines, as the available data covers only one year of risk-based contributions.

The EBA states that it intends to consider a number of suggested improvements to the guidelines as part of a wider review of the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (2014/49/EU) (“DGSD”) in 2019.

The assessment on the implementation of the methods for calculating contributions to DGSD has been carried out in accordance with Article 13(3) of the DGSD.

Basel III Monitoring Exercise Report Published

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The European Banking Authority (“EBA“) published a report on September 12, 2017, which outlined the results of a monitoring exercise on Basel III and the impact of the CRD IV Directive and Capital Requirements Regulation.

The report includes analysis of a number of statistics, including capital ratios, liquidity coverage ratios and the impact of phase-in arrangements. Over 200 banks were analyzed in the report.

In general, the EBA found that there was an improvement of capital positions in European banks, evidenced by an increase in total average common equity tier 1 ratio, average liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio.

The full report is available here.

European Commission Implementing Regulation Amending Implementing Regulation 2016/2070 Published in the OJ

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The European Commission Implementing Regulation amending Implementing Regulation 2016/2070 in relation to benchmarking portfolios and reporting instructions under the CRD IV Directive (2013/36/EU) (Regulation 2017/1486) was published in the Official Journal of the EU (“OJ“) on August 31, 2017.

The Implementing Regulation 2016/2070 sets out the reporting requirements required from institutions and was published in the OJ in December 2016. The European Banking Authority (“EBA“) and other competent authorities use the information reported to assess the quality of the institutions’ internal approaches under Article 78 of CRD IV.

Pursuant to Article 78(1) of CRD IV, institutions must submit the calculations of their internal approaches at least once a year. Given that the reporting requirements evolve over time in line with the changing focus of the competent authorities’ assessments and EBA Reports, the Commission considered it necessary to amend Annexes I to VI to Implementing Regulation 2016/2070.

The amendments to Implementing Regulation 2016/2070 are limited, and as such, there was no public consultation. The Implementing Regulation will enter into force on September 20, 2017.

EBA Launches Supplementary Data Collection on Revision of Investment Firm Prudential Framework

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On July 6, 2017, the European Banking Authority (“EBA“) published a press release announcing the launch of a supplementary data collection relating to its proposals for a revised prudential framework for investment firms. It also published a template for investment firms authorized under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (2004/39/EC) (MiFID) with instructions.

This exercise follows up on the first data collection launched on July 15, 2016, and the discussion paper published by the EBA on November 4, 2016, in which the EBA consulted on its proposals for developing a new prudential framework.

The EBA notes that, following feedback to the discussion paper, it has improved its initiation proposals concerning primarily the calculation of capital requirements based on risk proxies (known as “K-factors“) under the following three types of risk: (i) risk to customers (RtC), risk to market (RtM) and risk to firm (RtF). It has decided to undertake a supplementary data collection to allow for a complete calibration of all the relevant aspects of the new prudential regime and a final impact assessment of its proposal on regulatory capital requirements. The data collection has been designed to reduce that burden by limiting the number of variables requested to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose.

The deadline for firms to submit completed templates to the relevant national competent authorities is August 3, 2017.

EBA Final Guidelines on ICT Risk Assessment Under Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process

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On May 11, 2017, the EBA published a report (EBA/GL/2017/05) containing its final guidelines on information and communication technology (“ICT“) risk assessment under the supervisory review and evaluation process (“SREP“) required under the CRD IV Directive (2013/36/EU).

The guidelines are addressed to competent authorities and aim at promoting common procedures and methodologies for the assessment of ICT risk. They should be read in conjunction with the EBA SREP Guidelines, which continue to remain applicable as appropriate.

The guidelines are contained in section 3 of the report and are structured around three main parts:

  1. the general provisions for applying the guidelines (Title 1);
  2. the assessment of the institution’s ICT governance and strategy (Title II); and
  3. the assessment of ICT risk and the controls in place in the context of risks to capital (Title III), which reflects the same structure as the EBA SREP Guidelines on the assessment of operational risk.

Competent authorities should consider the principle of proportionality when applying the guidelines. The depth and detail of the ICT risk assessment should be proportionate to the size, structure and operational environment of the institution, together with the nature, scale and complexity of its activities.

The guidelines are to be translated into the official EU languages and published on the EBA website. They will be in effect on January 1, 2018.

EBA Amends ITS on Benchmarking of Internal Approaches for 2018 Benchmarking Exercise

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On May 4, 2017, the European Banking Authority (“EBA“) published an amended version of its implementing technical standards (“ITS“) on benchmarking of internal approaches under Article 78(8) of the CRD IV Directive (2013/36/EU) (EBA ITS 2017 02).

The final draft ITS are contained in a zip file that has been added to the EBA’s dedicated webpage on regulatory technical standards (RTS) and ITS on benchmarking portfolios. They are intended for use by the EBA and competent authorities in their 2018 assessment of internal approaches for credit and market risk. The ITS have been amended to reflect updates to the Single Rulebook. They also reflect updates to the benchmarking portfolios that were necessary to facilitate the 2018 benchmarking exercise for both credit and market risk so that they remain relevant for supervisors.

The amendments are expected to apply to the submission of initial market valuation data in November 2017 and of other market and credit risk data in April 2018. The EBA has submitted the updated ITS to the European Commission, but the Commission has not yet adopted them.

The EBA aims to annually update the ITS to ensure future benchmarking exercises are relevant and successful.

European Banking Authority Publishes Final Guidelines on Bail-in

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On April 5, 2017, the European Banking Authority published three sets of guidelines in relation to the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, and in particular, bail-in. The guidelines looked at: a) the interrelationship between the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive sequence of write-down and conversion and the Capital Requirements Regulation; b) the rate of conversion of debt to equity in bail-in; and c) the treatment of shareholders in bail-in or the write-down and conversion of capital instruments. The guidelines give greater clarification on the area of bail-in and are intended to complement existing regulation and guidance. The guidelines and related press release, are available here.