EBA publishes final draft Technical Standards on liquidity requirements

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Implementing and Regulatory Technical Standards (ITS and RTS) related to liquidity requirements. The package includes: (i) final draft ITS on currencies for which the justified demand for liquid assets exceeds their availability; (ii) final draft RTS on derogations for eligible currencies; and (iii) final draft ITS listing the currencies with an extremely narrow definition of central bank eligibility. These final draft Technical Standards will be part of the Single Rulebook aimed at enhancing regulatory harmonisation in the banking sector in the European Union (EU) and namely at strengthening its resilience against liquidity risk.

The final draft ITS on currencies for which the justified demand for liquid assets exceeds their availability aim at drawing a list of currencies that have constraints on the availability of liquid assets. The list has been compiled on the basis of data gathered by EU Member States. In particular, the data collection has been completed for two currencies: the Norwegian krone (NOK) and the Danish krone (DKK). This list of currencies with constraints will be revised once a final definition of liquid assets is available at EU level.

The final draft RTS on derogations for eligible currencies aim at specifying the derogations that could be applied to those currencies facing constraints on the availability of liquid assets. These standards aim at addressing the inherent difficulties that institutions would face in meeting their liquidity coverage requirement even in spite of a sound liquidity management. Although the RTS try to discourage, to the extent possible, the use of derogations, these may have to be applied in those circumstances where an institution can prove that, despite all mitigating actions undertaken, the need for liquid assets remains. Institutions willing to apply such derogations will, amongst other conditions, have to notify competent authorities and provide detailed information 30 days prior to the initial use of the derogation.

The final draft ITS on currencies with an extremely narrow definition of central bank eligibility aim at drawing a list of currencies in which only central government debt or debt issued by the central bank is eligible as collateral for standard liquidity operations at the central bank. Based on this definition, as well as on the information provided by Member States, only the Bulgarian lev (BGN) appears to have extremely narrow central bank eligibility.

Legal basis and next steps

These final RTS and ITS have been developed in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 (CRR) on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms.

The final standards have been sent today to the European Commission for their adoption as EU Regulations that will be directly applicable throughout the EU.