EBA clarifies the status of several disclosure guidelines, and ensures continuous transparency of credit quality of exposures by all types of credit institutions

• The EBA is repealing three outdated disclosure guidelines and amending the scope of application of the Guidelines on disclosure of non-performing and forborne exposures.
• With this amendment, the EBA is ensuring a sufficient level of transparency on the credit quality of the exposures held by all institutions.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is providing today clarity on the applicability of several EBA disclosure guidelines which are replaced totally or partially by the Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on Pillar 3 disclosure. As part of this effort, the EBA has repealed three guidelines that are replaced by that ITS and revised the scope of application of the Guidelines on disclosure of non-performing and forborne exposures. The amending Guidelines published today ensure the continuity of public disclosures on non-performing and forborne exposures by all credit institutions.

Considering the full overlap of the Implementing Technical Standards on Pillar 3 disclosures with earlier requirements, the EBA is repealing three guidelines that are no longer relevant, including:

• Guidelines on disclosure requirements under Part Eight of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (EBA/GL/2016/11);
• Guidelines on liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) disclosure to complement the disclosure of liquidity risk management (EBA/GL/2017/01);
• Guidelines on disclosure of encumbered and unencumbered assets (EBA/GL/2014/03).

The ITS on Pillar 3 disclosures also specify disclosure requirements on non-performing and forborne exposures that are applicable only to large and other listed institutions, in line with Article 442 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR). The EBA believes that such limited scope of application of these disclosure requirements compromises the access by external stakeholders to relevant information on credit quality of exposures of small and non-complex institutions and other non-listed institutions.

Therefore, the EBA amending Guidelines adjust the scope of application of the Guidelines on disclosure of non-performing and forborne exposures (EBA/GL/2018/10) to clarify that these Guidelines will continue to apply to listed small- and non-complex institutions and to other medium-sized institutions that are non-listed. The amending Guidelines will apply from 31 December 2022.

The joint application of the amending Guidelines and the ITS on Pillar 3 disclosures will ensure that all EU institutions will continue to disclose relevant information regarding non-performing and forborne exposure, where transparency on this topic is of particular relevance considering the worsening economic outlook post COVID-19 and the current geopolitical developments.

Legal basis and background

The comprehensive disclosure requirements seat out in the Implementing Technical Standards on Pillar 3 disclosures that apply in the EU based on the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/637 since 28 June 2021 include disclosures requirements previously specified in several EBA guidelines.

In line with the Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, the EBA aims to harmonise the supervisory practices and requirements applicable to all types of credit institutions and to ensure that they all provide sufficient (and proportionate) level of information regarding their non-performing and forborne exposures.

The amending Guidelines do not introduce any new requirements, whilst only clarify the application of the existing EBA guidelines and make sure that the affected institutions continue disclosing the information as they have been doing since 2019.