Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Discussion Paper on strong customer authentication and secure communication. The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will mandate the EBA to deliver Regulatory Technical Standards on this topic, which the EBA is required to deliver by January 2017. Prior to starting the development of these requirements, the EBA is issuing a Discussion Paper, with a view to obtaining early input into the development process. Responses can be submitted until 8 February 2016.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft technical standards on the separation of payment card schemes and processing entities under Article 7(6) of the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR). The technical standards introduce specific requirements related to the independence of payment card schemes and processing entities. The consultation runs until 8 March 2016.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a comparative report on the approaches taken by a sample of European banking groups on scenarios in recovery plans. This benchmarking exercise is aimed at supporting national competent authorities and institutions by providing them with an overview of how scenarios included in recovery plans have been developed so far.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on the reporting of financial information for institutions using IFRS (FINREP IFRS). The proposed amendments follow the finalisation of IFRS 9 by the IASB in July 2014 and aim at collecting early industry views on changes that IFRS 9 would trigger to FINREP. This consultation is distinct from the on-going IFRS 9 endorsement process and does not relate to financial information reported by institutions using national generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP). The consultation will run until 8 March 2016.

Following a workshop on cloud services in the banking sector jointly hosted with the European Banking Authority (EBA) in London, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has issued a report including a number of recommendations for the secure adoption of cloud computing in the banking sector at the EU level.

The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – has launched a Discussion Paper on automation in financial advice, aimed at assessing what, if any, action is required to harness the potential benefits of this innovation and mitigate its risks.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) released today a report reviewing the publication by competent authorities, on an anonymous basis, of administrative penalties imposed for breach of the national provisions transposing the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) or of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The report also includes links to the websites of competent authorities where such sanctions are published and makes recommendations to enhance harmonisation in terms of disclosure and facilitate access to information. The EBA also published a list of links to each competent authority’s publication of such administrative penalties, which will be updated on a regular basis.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA –published today the 2015 List of Identified Financial Conglomerates.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) released today its assessment of the annual Pillar 3 reports of a sample of European banks, which relate to the 2014 financial year. This is the first report since the entry into force of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) that assesses banks’ compliance against the disclosure requirements laid down in CRR.

The transparency exercise data published by the European Banking Authority (EBA) on 24 November 2015 contained information regarding the ‘fully loaded’ CET1 ratio’ for all EU banks in the sample. This ratio, which was published for information only, is calculated using existing supervisory reporting data. The EBA has been alerted that there was an error in the published ‘fully loaded CET1 ratio’ for some banks due to double counting of excess deductions from AT1 capital. The ‘fully loaded CET1 ratio’ for all individual banks published by the EBA has, therefore, been removed from the interactive tool on the website. The aggregate figures in the EBA’s report will be updated accordingly.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) will mark its first five years of activities with a conference on the achievements and remaining challenges in strengthening the banking sector of the European Union (EU) and supporting the effective functioning of the Single Market. The EBA 5th anniversary conference will take place on 5 February 2016 and will be hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London in the historical setting of the “Guildhall”. Discussions will benefit from the participation of high level policy makers, industry representatives, academics and other stakeholders from across the EU and beyond.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) related to liquidity requirements for cross-border intragroup financial support under stress conditions. The purpose of these RTS is to specify the additional objective criteria listed in the Delegated Act (Commission Delegated Regulation EU No 2015/61 of 10 October 2014), for the application of a preferential treatment in the calculation of the liquidity coverage requirement (LCR) for cross-border intragroup liquidity flows. The consultation runs until 13 January 2016.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on Guidelines on the treatment of credit value adjustment (CVA) risk under the supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP), as well as a data collection exercise for the Quantitative Impact Study (QIS) to calibrate the threshold values. These Guidelines are based on a policy recommendation contained in the EBA’s CVA report and aim to provide a common European approach to the assessment of CVA risk under SREP, including adequacy of capital to cover for this risk, and the determination of any potential additional own funds requirements. The public consultation runs until 12 February 2016 and the data collection exercise should be completed on 28 January 2016.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a report benchmarking the institutions’ remuneration practices concerning the use of the possibility to increase the maximum ratio between variable and fixed remuneration up to 200%. The Capital Requirements Directive (CRDIV) limits the aforementioned ratio to 100%, unless it is increased following the shareholders’ approval. The report also shows that nearly all Member States have allowed for the possibility to increase the ratio between the two remuneration components to 200% but only institutions in 15 Member States have actually made use of this possibility.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a follow up report on the actions taken following the publication of its Opinion on the use of allowances, in October 2014, where Competent Authorities were asked to use all necessary supervisory measures to ensure that by 31 December 2014 those institutions using the so called ‘role-based allowances’ adjust their remuneration policies in line with the criteria set out in the Opinion. The follow-up report concluded that Competent Authorities have taken measures in this respect and, where necessary, asked institutions to implement the necessary changes. However, such measures will, in most cases, only be effective for the remuneration awarded for the performance year 2015, while only in few cases were changes to institutions’ remuneration policies and practices already made for the performance year 2014.