ITS

ESMA Consults on SFT Regulation and Amendments to EMIR RTS

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On September 30, 2016, ESMA published a consultation paper (ESMA/2016/1409) on draft regulatory technical standards (“RTS“) and draft implementing technical standards (“ITS“) implementing the Regulation on reporting and transparency of securities financing transactions ((EU) 2015/2365) (the “SFT Regulation“).

The SFT Regulation will require market participants to report details of securities financing transactions (“SFTs“) to an approved EU trade repository (“TR“). The main issues addressed are:

  • RTS and ITS procedure and criteria for registration as a TR;
  • RTS and ITS on the use of internationally agreed reporting standards, the reporting logic and main aspects of the structure and content of SFT reports;
  • RTS requirements relating to transparency of data, data collection, aggregation and comparison; and
  • RTS on access levels for different competent authorities.

ESMA also proposes amendments to existing technical standards implementing requirements relating to TRs under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (“EMIR“). ESMA states that the amendments are needed to ensure a level playing field for market participants in respect of registration and access rules. ESMA is consulting on the following:

  • consolidated amended text of RTS on registration of TRs under EMIR; and
  • amendments to RTS on access levels under EMIR.

The consultation will close on November 30, 2016. ESMA will use the feedback it receives to finalize its draft technical standards, which are to be submitted to the European Commission for endorsement by the end of Q1 or beginning of Q2 2017. It is expected that the finalized implementing measures will become applicable from 2018.

European Commission Adopts Implementing Regulation on ITS for Reporting Results of Internal Approach Calculations under Article 78(2) CRD IV Directive

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On September 19, 2016, the European Commission adopted an Implementing Regulation implementing technical standards (ITS) for templates, definitions and IT solutions to be used by institutions when reporting the results of their internal approach calculations to the European Banking Authority (EBA) and to competent authorities under the CRD IV Directive (2013/36/EU).

The Implementing Regulation is based on the draft ITS submitted by the EBA to the Commission in March 2015 to which the EBA published an opinion agreeing to the Commission’s amendments to the ITS in May 2016. Once the Implementing Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ) it will enter into force on the 20th day following its publication.

EBA Amends Implementing Technical Standards on Benchmarking of Internal Approaches under CRD IV

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On August 4, 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published and submitted to the EU Commission an amended version of its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on benchmarking of internal approaches under Article 78(8) of the CRD IV Directive (which can be found in a zip file on the EBA’s website).

The EBA has amended the ITS for the purposes of running the 2017 benchmarking exercise. The amended ITS will assist competent authorities in their 2017 assessment of internal approaches both for credit risk, and for market risk. In a related press release, the EBA explains that, given the type of changes introduced in the instructions and templates, the relevant annexes are replaced in whole so that there is a consolidated version of the updated ITS package.

The EBA plans to annually update the ITS and to maintain them on a regular basis to ensure the success and quality of future benchmarking exercises.

EBA Publishes Report on Leverage Ratio Requirements under Article 511 of the CRR

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On August 3, 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a report on the leverage ratio (LR) requirements under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR).

The EBA report recommends the introduction of a minimum LR requirement in the EU to mitigate the risk of excessive leverage, which is in line with the discussions held by the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS) – the governing body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) – in January 2016.

The analysis suggests that the potential impact of introducing a LR requirement of 3 percent on the provision of financing by credit institutions would be relatively moderate, while, overall, it should lead to more stable credit institutions. Similarly, on the basis of econometric analysis, it has been estimated that risk taking should not be strongly affected. The EBA considers that the introduction of a 3 percent LR should lead to more stable credit institutions overall and the combined application of a risk-based ratio and a LR requirement will reduce the overall cyclicality of capital requirements.

The EBA also assessed the exposure of different categories of credit institutions to the risk of excessive leverage (REL) concluding that the results do not give a strong indication of differences in the degree of exposure to REL across different types of credit institutions. However, global systemically important institutions (GSIIs) show a higher exposure to REL and therefore a higher LR requirement may be warranted.

The report also flags that while the Basel LR standard fits well with the EU banking sector, the same cannot be said for all business models covered by other EU prudential regulations. For example, the EBA recommends that central counterparties (CCPs) and central securities depositaries (CSDs) be exempted. The report describes the characteristics of various specialized business models, such as public development banks, concluding that there is little room for differentiating the LR without opening the door to cases of circumvention of the basic principles of the LR. The report did not find evidence to exempt certain credit institutions from being subject to compliance with the LR minimum requirement of 3 percent on the basis of their limited size. However, the EBA will explore in more detail a reduced frequency and granularity of reporting requirements in the case of smaller credit institutions in future updates of the implementing technical standards (ITS) on LR reporting.

The Commission is required to submit a report on the impact and effectiveness of the LR, and potential legislative proposals, to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU by December 31, 2016.

EBA Publishes Amended Standards on Supervisory Reporting for Institutions

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The European Banking Authority (“EBA“) has published its final draft Implementing Technical Standards (“ITS“) amending the Commission’s Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 680/2014 on supervisory reporting. The EBA is required to develop ITS specifying supervisory reporting in the areas of own funds, financial information, losses stemming from lending collateralized by immovable property, large exposures, leverage ratio, liquidity ratios, asset encumbrance, additional liquidity monitoring metrics and supervisory benchmarking.

The final ITS include minor changes to templates and instructions which reflect some of the answers published in the EBA’s Single Rulebook Q&A, align with disclosure requirements for capital buffers and correct legal references and other clerical errors. The amendments are expected to be applicable for reporting from December 2016.

European Commission Implementing Regulation Lays Down ITS on Disclosure of Leverage Ratio for Institutions under CRR

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A European Commission Implementing Regulation laying down implementing technical standards (“ITS“) on disclosure of the leverage ratio for institutions under the CRR has been published in the Official Journal of the EU on February 16.

The Implementing Regulation states that, to ensure the obligation in the CRR to disclose information related to the leverage ratio is carried out by institutions in an effective and harmonised manner across the EU as soon as possible, it is necessary to require institutions to use templates for disclosure at the earliest possible date. The templates and instructions on completing them are set out in the annexes to the Implementing Regulation.

The Implementing Regulation entered into force on February 17.

ESMA Opinion Highlights Differences with the European Commission on the Main Indices and Recognized Exchanges Under CRR

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On 19 December 2014, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) submitted to the European Commission draft implementing technical standards (ITS), pursuant to the Capital Requirements Regulation 575/2013, specifying a list of main indices and recognized exchanges. On 17 December 2015, the European Commission informed ESMA of its intention to amend the draft ITS by including two additional equity indices (the Russell 3000 Index and the Hang Send Composite Index). In an opinion (ESMA/2016/163), published on 29 January 2016, ESMA made recommendations in response to this intention.

ESMA argues that the Russell 3000 Index and the Hang Send Composite Index should not be included in the ITS on the grounds that these indices do not contain relatively liquid instruments in an EEA economy, given that they are mainly composed of US and Asian Stocks. Instead, ESMA suggests adding four other additional indices (Russell 1000 Index, Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300, the S&P BSE 100 Index and FTSE Nasdaq Dubai UAE 20 Index), and replacing the Nikkei 225 with the Nikkei 300 and the NZSE 10 with the S&P NZX 15 Index. ESMA’s opinion recognizes the value of incorporating a large number of indices as this will cast a wider net of eligible collateral that European banks can use.

Finally, given the frequency with which updates to ITS are needed, ESMA suggests that the Commission reviews the regime to avoid each modification requiring a full legislative cycle.

EBA Publishes Final Draft Technical Standards and Guidelines on Methodology and Disclosure for G-SIIs

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The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published final draft technical standards and revised guidelines on the further specification of the indicators of global systemic importance and their disclosure. The guidelines have been developed according to Directive 2013/36/EU (the Capital Requirements Directive, CRD IV) and in line with international standards. CRD IV requires G-SIIs to hold higher capital levels in order to contain the risks they pose to the financial system and the impact that their potential failure may have on sovereign finance and taxpayers (so-called “too big to fall”). The draft revised Guidelines stipulate that not only G-SIIs, but also other large institutions with an overall exposure of more than €200 billion and which are potentially systemically relevant, will be subject to the same disclosure requirement as the G-SIIs.

The revision was prompted by a new data template and some minor changes introduced by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in January 2015 for the identification of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs). The list of EU G-SIBs identified by the BCBS and the global systematically important institutions (G-SIIs) identified by Member States’ authorities are identical.

The final draft technical standards and revised draft guidelines are set out in three reports (revised technical standards (RTS) report, implementing technical standards (ITS) report, and draft guidelines report). The final RTS and ITS will be presented to the European Commission for endorsement, following which the RTS will be subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU before publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

ESMA Publishes Final Technical advice on the MiFID II Directive and MiFIR

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On December 19, 2014, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published final technical advice (ESMA/2014/1569) to the European Commission and a consultation paper (ESMA/2014/1570) on the MiFID II Directive (2014/65/EU) and MiFIR (the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (Regulation 600/2014).

The consultation paper includes draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and implementing technical standards (ITS) under the MiFID II Directive and MiFIR.  The consultation paper invites responses to the draft RTS and ITS by March 2, 2015, and responses will be used to finalise the draft RTS which will be sent to the Commission for endorsement by the middle of 2015.  Technical Advice.  Consultation Paper.

EIOPA Consults on Second Set of Solvency II Implementing Technical Standards and Guidelines

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The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has, on December 2, published 16 consultations in respect of the second set of draft implementing technical standards (ITS) and guidelines required under the Solvency II Directive (2009/138/EC).

The 16 consultations have been grouped under the three Solvency II pillars. EIOPA has also published two additional consultations on: (i) the draft guidelines on the supervision of branches of third-country insurance undertakings; and (ii) technical advice on recovery plans, finance schemes and supervisory powers in deteriorating financial conditions.

Responses to the consultations are requested by March 2, 2015 with the exception of the technical advice consultation for which responses are requested by February 18, 2015.  Consultations.