Question 19: Article 429a(1)(d) and (e) of the CRR states that ”1.By way of derogation from Article 429(4), an institution may exclude any of the following exposures from its total exposure measure: (d) where the institution is a public development credit institution, the exposures arising from assets that constitute claims on central governments, regional governments, local authorities or public sector entities in relation to public sector investments and promotional loans; (e) where the institution is not a public development credit institution, the parts of exposures arising from passing-through promotional loans to other credit institutions”.
Please refer to questions 19.1 & 19.2.
Question 19.1: Are the structures presented in Section 5.1.2 complete? If not, could respondents provide detailed information on other structures in which a credit institution may have exposures exempted in accordance with Article 429a(1)(d) or (e) of the CRR?
Structures presented are complete.
Question 19. 2: Do the proposed amendments provide for an adequate reporting on exposures of credit institutions that are involved in these structures?
They do
Question 20: Regarding the proposals to include averaging for some components of the leverage ratio in accordance with Article 430(2) and (7) of the CRR, to develop the standards the EBA shall take into account the how susceptible a component is to significant temporary reductions in transaction volumes that could result in an underrepresentation of the risk of excessive leverage at the reporting reference date. What leverage ratio components do respondent consider most and least susceptible to temporary reductions in transaction volumes?
Most susceptible: Securities Finance Transactions;
We agree with the BCBS conclusions (d468 Revisions to leverage ratio disclosure requirements – June 2019) that only SFT exposures are susceptible to face temporary reductions in transaction volumes,
However, the reporting of daily exposure is excessive and would lead to disproportionate operational complexity and costs. From our understanding, a calculation for SFTs based on weighted month end average exposure values would provide the same information as an operationally excessive reporting of daily actuals.
In any case, the computation of an average of daily calculations for SFTs should only be done with management data on a best effort basis, as evidenced by UK and US banks Daily Values to be used for the calculation of leverage ratios should not be based on accounting values, but they should be based on management data and on a best effort basis.
Best estimates should be considered as acceptable provided that they are measured consistently (within the quarter and with the accounting-based end of quarter figures) and prudently. As there might be difficulties in valuing the assets, applying the leverage ratio netting rules and even eliminating intra group transactions (for the group consolidated ratio) at the end of each day, the best way is to adopt a pragmatic approach.
It should also be noted that the calculation of leverage exposure for SFTs based on daily values would impose significant one-off and ongoing costs on banks, as internal processes and IT systems would need to be adjusted to the new disclosure requirements.
Lastly, in order to reduce excessive burden LR6.2 (C48.01) should be deleted, as LR6.1 (C48.02) already shows the average result of LR6.2.
Question 21: Regarding the clarification of the reporting in template C43.00 on whether the breakdown of the RWA should take into account potential substitution effects due to credit risk mitigation, i.e. whether to perform the exposure type categorisation of RWEA by original obligor or guarantor, and bearing in mind that in any case the RWEA reported in C 43.00 is after the RWEA reducing effect of CRM, the respondents are requested to provide the information below cconsidering the importance of consistency as well as reporting costs.
Please refer to questions 21.1 & 21.2
Question 21.1: Would respondents agree to align the information reported by requiring the RWEA in this template without taking into account potential substitution effects due to credit risk mitigation?
We would prefer to report both RWEA and LRE figures after potential substitution effects due to credit risk mitigation.
Question 21.2: Would respondents strong reasons based on costs to prefer instead the reporting of both values, the RWA as well as the leverage ratio exposure, after substitution effects? What would be the reasons?
Reporting RWAE without taking into account risk reduction techniques would imply that current outcomes of the IRB and STD tools could no longer be used and that new computation processes would have to be developed leading do increased complexity and costs.
Question 22: Are the instructions and templates clear to the respondents?
C 47.00 - LEVERAGE RATIO CALCULATION (LRCalc): row 251 IPS exposures exempted in accordance with Article 429a(1)(c) of the CRR: Instructions shall be more explained on IPS exposures.
C 40.00 - ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT OF THE EXPOSURE MEASURE (LR1):
Row 350. Large institutions that are not G-SIIs shall report total of financial assets on an annual frequency whereas they are required to report the same amount on a semi-annual frequency in the template LR1/LSUM. We would suggest alignment of frequencies between COREP templates and Pillar 3 templates.
Paragraph 20 of the instructions on reporting on leverage (Annex XI) refers to “derivatives, SFTs off-balance sheet”, whereas detailed instructions to fulfill the template cells exclude SFTs from off-balance sheet items (Row 095). Accordingly, it should be noted in paragraph 20 “derivatives, SFTs and off-balance sheet”:
Question 23: Do the respondents identify any discrepancies between these templates and instructions and the calculation of the requirements set out in the underlying regulation?
C48.01: Daily values for SFTs for the reporting period should be aligned with Pillar 3 on an annual basis.
Question 24: Do the respondents agree that the amended ITS fits the purpose of the underlying regulation?
Agree.