Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today additional clarifications on the application of the prudential framework in response to issues raised as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. These clarifications update the FAQ section of the EBA Report on COVID-19 implementation policies published on 7 August. They mainly cover the EBA Guidelines on moratoria and COVID-19 reporting, operational risk, downturn LGD estimation and the credit risk mitigation framework. This Report is part of the EBA’s wider monitoring of the implementation of COVID-19 policies as well as of the application of existing policies under these exceptional circumstances.

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a consultation paper proposing to amend the EU Commission’s Implementing Regulation on the benchmarking of credit risk, market risk and IFRS9 models so as to include some new elements for the 2022 exercise. The EBA benchmarking exercise forms the basis for both supervisory assessment and horizontal analysis of internal models. It ensures consistent monitoring of the impact of the several different supervisory and regulatory measures aiming at the harmonising capital requirements in the EU.</p>

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on its new Guidelines on internal governance under the Investment Firms Directive (IFD), specifying the governance provisions that Class 2 investment firms should comply with, taking into account the proportionality principle. This governance framework aims at ensuring that investment firms have a clear organisational structure, effectively manage their risks  and have adequate internal control mechanisms in place. The consultation runs until 18 March 2021.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultations on its new Guidelines on remuneration policies under the Investment Firms Directive (IFD). This guidance specifies the remuneration provisions that Class 2 investment firms should comply with, taking into account the proportionality principle.  Sound remuneration policies ensure an alignment of the variable remuneration of identified staff with the risk profile of the investment firm and the assets it manages, and they must be gender neutral. The consultation runs until 17 March 2021.

The European Banking Authority’s (EBA) published today the methodology for carrying out risk assessments under Article 9a of the revised EBA Regulation. These risk assessments are part of the EBA’s new role to lead, coordinate and monitor the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) in all EU Member States.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its EBA Report on liquidity measures, which monitors and evaluates the liquidity coverage requirements currently in place in the EU. The liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) of EU banks stood at around 166% in June 2020, materially above the minimum threshold of 100%.

​​​​​​​The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the capitalisation of non-modellable risk factors (NMRFs) for institutions using the FRTB Internal Model Approach (IMA) implemented in EU as a reporting requirement. These draft RTS are a key deliverables in the EBA’s work on implementing the FRTB in EU and part of its roadmap for the new market and counterparty credit risk approaches published on 27 June 2019.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a package of seven final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the prudential treatment of investment firms. These final draft RTS, which are part of the phase 1 mandates of the EBA roadmap on investment firms, will ensure a proportionate implementation of the new prudential framework for investment firms taking into account the different activities, sizes and complexity of investments firms.

​​​​​​​The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the calculation of risk-weighted exposure amounts of collective investment undertakings (CIUs) in line with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The proposed draft RTS, which will contribute to the calculation of own funds requirements for the exposures in the form of units or shares in CIUs under the Standardised Approach for credit risk, clarify the regulatory treatment for missing inputs when the underlying risk of derivatives is unknown and for the computation of the exposure value for counterparty credit risk. The consultation runs until 16 March 2021.

The Chairs of the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), EBA, EIOPA and ESMA, submitted a letter today to Mr Erkki Liikanen, Chair of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, regarding the Foundation consultation on sustainability reporting. In their letter, the Chairs agree that improving data availability and public disclosure by corporates is a key element to foster sustainable growth, and strongly support the development of globally accepted non-financial reporting standards to facilitate the disclosure of meaningful and comparable metrics on environmental, social and governance aspects. They also support that international standards should build on existing jurisdictional and international initiatives, including those of the European Union.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) welcomed today the European Commission’s comprehensive action plan to tackle the expected rise of non-performing loans (NPLs) on banks’ balance sheets following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The action plan requests the EBA’s support to improve data quality and comparability, enhance transparency and market discipline under Pillar 3 rules, and address regulatory impediments to NPL purchases. The EBA is going to act swiftly to support these initiatives while continuing its wider regulatory and supervisory work on NPLs in the EU.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the contractual recognition of stay powers. The technical standards provide further specification of essential elements to ensure the effectiveness of the resolution regime established by the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD). These standards are part of the EBA's major programme of work to implement the BRRD and address the problem of too-big-to-fail banks.

In its 12 March statement, the EBA urged banks to follow conservative distribution policies and use capital for ensuring the continuous financing of the economy. Banks in the European Union have been able to continue supporting businesses and mostly remained with strong levels of capitalisation. However, given that the COVID-19 crisis and the uncertainty on its impact on the economy are likely to continue, with possible further deterioration of asset quality metrics over the next quarters, the EBA urges banks to refrain from distributing capital outside the banking system when deciding on dividends and other distribution policies, including share buybacks, unless extreme caution is applied.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its first Report on progress made by competent authorities with the setting up of colleges to enhance supervisory cooperation for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) purposes. The EBA’s work on monitoring colleges is part of its new role to lead, coordinate and monitor the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) in all EU Member States as set out in the EBA Regulation.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its updated ad-hoc impact study on the implementation of Basel III in the EU in response to the EU Commission’s call for advice (CfA). The study is based on a sample of 99 banks and has a reference date of December 2019. Under the full implementation of Basel III and conservative assumptions, the updated impact is meaningfully lower than previously estimated, using June 2018 data and a consistent sample.  In addition, the Report presents some qualitative reflections on the potential interactions between different elements of Basel III framework and the estimated adverse impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The EBA reaffirms its policy recommendations put forward in its previous advice and supports the full implementation of the final Basel III standards in the EU, which will contribute to the credibility of the EU banking sector and ensure a well-functioning global banking market.