EBA publishes final Guidelines on disclosure of non-performing and forborne exposures

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its final Guidelines on disclosure of non- performing and forborne exposures. The disclosure will allow market participants and stakeholders to have a better picture of the quality of the banks' assets, the main features of their non-performing and forborne exposures, and in the case of more troubled banks, the distribution of the problematic assets and the value of the collateral backing those assets.

The Guidelines set enhanced disclosure requirements and uniform disclosure formats applicable to credit institutions' public disclosure of information regarding non-performing exposures, forborne exposures and foreclosed assets. The proportionality principle applies to these Guidelines and is based on the significance of the credit institution and the level of non-performing loans. Therefore, the Guidelines include a set of common templates applicable to all banks and a set of additional templates applicable only to significant credit institutions with a gross NPL ratio at a level of 5% or above.

The aim of the Guidelines is to foster transparency, providing meaningful information to market participants on the quality of credit institutions' assets, and to address any potential asymmetries of information in a consistent and comparable way. In addition, for those credit institutions with a gross NPL ratio at or above 5%, the Guidelines aim at providing a better insight of the distribution and features of the institutions' problematic assets, the quality and value of the collaterals backing them and the efficiency of the institution's recovery function.

Legal basis background and next steps

These Guidelines, which have been developed in accordance with Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, are another step forward in the implementation of the 2017 Council Action Plan to tackle non-performing loans in the EU. In that respect, the Council has stressed that a comprehensive approach combining a mix of complementing policy actions, at national and European level, is needed to address the existing stock of NPLs as well as to prevent the emergence and accumulation of new NPEs on banks' balance sheets.

The EBA is also developing new supervisory reporting requirements on NPEs, and these Guidelines have been developed ensuring full alignment between the disclosure templates and the supervisory reporting data.

The Guidelines apply from 31 December2019.