Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) welcomed today the EU Commission’s action plan on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT), and stands ready to support the Commission’s considerations through the consultation, whilst continuing to fulfil its recently strengthened mandate to prevent ML/TF and use new powers to lead, coordinate and monitor the EU financial sector’s fight against ML/TF.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its proposals for developing a simple, transparent and standardised (STS) framework for synthetic securitisation. This proposal, which is limited to balance-sheet securitisation, includes a list of criteria to be considered when labelling the synthetic securitisation as ‘STS' and provides the pros and cons of a potential differentiated capital treatment for this type of securitisation.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on credit risk mitigation (CRM) in the context of the advanced internal ratings-based (A-IRB) approach. These Guidelines, which are part of the EBA's regulatory review of the IRB approach, aim to eliminate the remaining significant differences in approaches in the area of CRM, which are due to either different supervisory practices or bank-specific choices. These Guidelines complement the EBA Report on CRM, which focuses on the standardised approach (SA) and the foundation-IRB approach (F-IRB).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today an additional EU-wide transparency exercise to provide market participants with updated information on the financial conditions of EU banks as of 31 December 2019, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EBA expects to publish the results of this exercise at the beginning of June.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an update to its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on benchmarking of internal approaches. The updated ITS include all benchmarking portfolios that will be used for the 2021 exercise. The main novelty is the inclusion of the IFRS9 template. The benchmarking exercise is an essential supervisory tool to enhance the quality of internal models, which is particularly important in a stressed economic situation.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its final Guidelines on the determination of the weighted average maturity (WAM) of the contractual payments due under the tranche of a securitisation transaction, as laid down in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). These Guidelines aim at ensuring that the methodology applicable for the determination of the WAM for regulatory purposes is sufficiently transparent and harmonised in order to increase consistency and comparability in the own funds held by institutions.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on specific reporting requirements for market risk. These ITS introduce the first elements of the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) into the EU prudential framework by means of a reporting requirement. The ITS are expected to apply from September 2021.

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) have today issued a Consultation Paper seeking input on proposed environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure standards for financial market participants, advisers and products. <br />These standards have been developed under the EU Regulation on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector (SFDR), aiming to:<br />- strengthen protection for end-investors;<br />- improve the disclosures to investors from a broad range of financial market participants and financial advisers; and<br />- improve the disclosures to investors regarding financial products.

Following up on its strategic communications of 12th, 25th, 31st March and 2nd April, the European Banking Authority (EBA) provides today further clarity on how additional flexibility will guide supervisory approaches in relation to market risk, the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), recovery planning, digital operational resilience and ICT risk and securitisation. At the same time, the EBA notes the need for stringent attention by supervisors and financial institutions in relation to key risks in these areas.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an updated guide on how to report the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) and a revised methodological guide on how to compile risk indicators and detailed risk analysis tools. FSIs provide insight into the financial health and soundness of countries’ financial institutions as well as corporate and household sectors, thus supporting the economic and financial stability analysis.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an Opinion in response to the European Commission’s intention to amend the EBA’s final draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on assigning risk weights to specialised lending exposures before endorsing them. The EBA is of the view that the proposed changes, despite their substantive nature, do not alter the draft RTS in a significant manner, as they still maintain a good balance between the flexibility and risk sensitivity required for the IRB approach and the need for a harmonised regulatory framework.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) updated today its Guidelines on the equivalence of confidentiality and professional secrecy regimes by adding the State Department of Financial Services (United States) to the current list of non-EU (third country) supervisory authorities whose confidentiality regimes can be regarded as equivalent. The EBA Guidelines are designed to help EU authorities in their assessment of third country equivalence and to facilitate cooperation with third country supervisory authorities and their participation in supervisory colleges overseeing international banks.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its quarterly Risk Dashboard covering Q4 2019 data and summarising the main risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector. Ahead of the Corona crisis, EU banks’ capital ratios and asset quality have improved. However, return on equity (RoE) has further worsened.